Court Opinion

ID: 9857420
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 14:34:01.158295+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:40:27.905887
License: Public Domain

Burling, J.
(dissenting in A-120 and concurring in the result in A-121). I vote to reverse the judgment of the Superior Court, Appellate Division, both as to the defendant owner, I. Jay Realty Company (A-120), and as to the defendants tenants, Arnold Sachs, Isidore Sachs and J. Milton Sachs, partners trading as the New Jersey Knitwear Co., and New Jersey Knitwear Co., a corporation of New Jersey (A-121).
With respect to the appeal of the owner I do not find any evidence in the record from which an inference might be *319drawn that plaintiff was upon the premises with the expressed or implied acquiescence of the tenants. In the absence of specific proof upon the question I would not assume a general custom that guests of employees are permitted to visit with them at the employer’s establishment —at least not in a manufacturing plant such as is involved in the instant case. The foregoing leads to the conclusion that plaintiff was not a licensee of the tenants but a trespasser. And if that be so, then the plaintiff was not owed the duty of reasonable care and the owner was entitled to a judgment of dismissal.
With respect to the appeal of the tenants, as I have indicated, plaintiff’s status was that of a trespasser and not a licensee. In this case, a mature person was involved and he was not owed the duty of having dangerous conditions made reasonably safe or being warned of such conditions.
In my analysis the problem of what duties are owed to a licensee of a tenant for conditions existent in common passageways which are controlled by the owner is not reached.
But the matter is one of importance and I therefore add that while I do not accept the majority’s initial premise that plaintiff was a licensee of the tenants, I am in accord with the views expressed in the opinion as to the duties of the tenants under the circumstances of this case if that premise be adopted.