Court Opinion

ID: 9704686
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:43:06.751961+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:04.443122
License: Public Domain

SCHREIBER, J.,
concurring.
The narrow question presented in our order granting certification in this case is “whether there was a duty on the part of the landlord to provide a lock for the door which opened into the common access area of the building where the attack on the tenant occurred.” I would answer affirmatively based on a traditional tort theory.
The Legislature has declared that the Hotel and Multiple Dwelling Law, N.J.S.A. 55:13A-1 et seq. “being ... remedial legislation necessary for the protection of the health and welfare of the residents of this State in order to assure the provision therefor of decent, standard and safe units of dwelling space, shall be liberally construed to effectuate the purposes and intent thereof.” N.J.S.A. 55:13A-2. That underlying policy was furthered when the Commissioner of Community Affairs adopted regulation N.J.A.C. 5:10 — 605.3(f)(2),1 which provided in pertinent part:
*233(i) Building entrance doors and other exterior exit doors shall be equipped with heavy duty lock sets. Latch sets shall have stop-work in the inside cylinder controlled by a master key only. Outside cylinders of main entrance door locks shall be operated by the tenant’s key, which shall not be keyed to also open the tenant’s apartment entrance door. Main entrance door locks shall be kept in the locked position and shall be freely openable from the inside at all times. Other exterior exit doors shall be locked to prevent entry and shall be freely openable from the inside at all times.
This regulation, having the effect of law, N.J.S.A. 55:13A-6(e) and N.J.A.C. 5:10-1.7, prescribed a standard of conduct for owners of multiple dwellings (buildings with three or more housing units, N.J.S.A. 55:13A-3(k)) with respect to a part of the premises under the landlord’s control. A tenant may have a cause of action in negligence for failure of the landlord to comply with that standard. Chief Justice Weintraub wrote in Michaels v. Brookchester, Inc., 26 N.J. 349 (1958), referring to the Tenement House Act, N.J.S.A. 55:1-1 et seq., the predecessor of the Hotel and Multiple Dwelling Law:
Our statute does not expressly authorize a suit by one injured by reason of a landlord’s violation and hence does not create a statutory cause of action as that term is understood. Rather, in harmony with our usual approach to statutes of this kind, the act is deemed to establish a standard of conduct, and to permit the intended beneficiaries to rely upon a negligent failure to meet that standard in a common law action for negligence. Evers v. Davis, 86 N.J.L. 196 (E. & A.1914); Daniels v. Brunton, supra (7 N.J. 102). [Id. at 386]
The principle enunciated in Michaels is equally applicable here.
I find no need to search for or rely upon any other doctrine to respond to the question certified. See Braitman v. Overlook Terrace Corp., 68 N.J. 368, 388 (1975) (Clifford and Schreiber, JJ., concurring).
*234Justice CLIFFORD joins in this opinion.

This regulation was subsequently amended. See N.J.A.C. 5:10-19.-6(c)(2)(i).
Security Requirements — The following provisions shall apply to all buildings heretofor [s/e] or hereafter erected that may be classified in residential occupan*233cy group L-2. Existing buildings shall comply with the requirements of this Section within two years after the effective date of these regulations.