Case Law Summaries

Cooper v. Schneider

• Opinion Date: March 15, 2001
• Real Property Law
• E-Mail

SIDEWALKS—Just because a commercial property owner’s sidewalk abuts a sidewalk on which a pedestrian fell, does not mean that the pedestrian can maintain a nuisance action against that property owner.

A pedestrian slipped and fell on an icy sidewalk. He sought damages from the owner of commercial property near the sidewalk, and from the municipality, on the theory that its failure to repair a leak created a dangerous situation on public property. The jury dismissed the claim against the property owners, but as to the municipality, the jury found that though the dangerous condition proximately caused the pedestrian’s fall and there was a foreseeable risk with sufficient notice for correction, the failure to remedy the condition was not palpably unreasonable. The pedestrian appealed on three grounds including that the lower court erred in its failure to permit plaintiff to pursue a cause of action in nuisance against the abutting landowner. The Appellate Division affirmed the lower court’s ruling. As to the property owners, it held that because the leak arose in the public street, and the owner’s property did not abut the area, and there was no evidence of fault, there was no basis for a nuisance action against the owner.

Copyright ©2003. Meislik & Meislik. All rights reserved.