Case Law Summaries

Lauzon v. Mercer Mutual Insurance Company

• Opinion Date: October 26, 2001
• Real Property Law
• E-Mail

LEASES; LIABILITY—A person injured by tripping on sidewalk doors leading to a tenant’s basement may make a claim against the tenant if it can be implied that the doors are part of the leased premises.

A pedestrian slipped and fell while walking across metal doors embedded in a sidewalk in front of a tenant’s premises. The tenant occupied both the first floor store front and the basement for storage purposes. The doors led to the basement. Under its lease, the tenant was obligated to insure its landlord against “any and all liability or claims of liability arising out of, occasioned by or resulting from any accidents or otherwise in or about the leased premises, [and] for any injuries to any person or persons.” The tenant obtained an insurance policy, naming its landlord as an additional insured. The policy limited liability to that “arising out of the maintenance, ownership or use of that part of the designated premises leased to” tenant. The lease also required the tenant to maintain the sidewalk in front of its leasehold. The injured pedestrian was not entering or exiting the tenant’s establishment, but was passing by on his own business. The tenant’s insurance company refused to provide a defense and indemnification of the landlord. It argued that because the pedestrian was not entering or exiting its insured’s premises at the time of the fall, there was no connection between the insurance policy and the loss for which coverage was demanded. The Court rejected that argument. It noted that the policy was not limited to an occurrence “within the leased premises,” but covered injuries “arising out of the use” of the premises. As such, the Court concluded that the accident in question “was a risk against which the tenant’s insurer had provided protection” and that the metal doors in the sidewalk were part of the premises leased to the tenant because they led to the basement used by the tenant for storage. Further, the landlord had told the tenant that the metal doors were to be used as fire exits. This, together with an obligation on the part of the tenant to maintain the sidewalks “in a clean condition, unencumbered and unobstructed,” persuaded the Court to find that the leasehold encompassed the sidewalk and the metal doors. That the pedestrian “was not entering or exiting the leased premises” was not dispositive.

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