Court Opinion

ID: 9634521
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:15:52.431823+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:42:52.952935
License: Public Domain

SCHREIBER, J.,
concurring.
Should a duty of due care to maintain a public sidewalk be imposed on the owner of the abutting property so that it does not constitute a hazard to members of the public lawfully using it? On several occasions a majority of this Court has answered this question in the negative. The harshness of this position has been somewhat ameliorated by various exceptions to the propo*161sition that the abutting landowner has no obligation, all of which are referred to in the majority opinion. Now the Court has extended the exceptions to all situations where the adjacent property is commercial. I commend this move, and join in the opinion and reversal of the judgment entered as a matter of law in favor of the defendant. However, I would rest the reversal on even broader grounds.
Imposition of a duty to maintain the adjacent sidewalk depends upon the existence of sound policy justification. In other words, is it fair? We are therefore called upon to consider such factors as the relationship of the parties, the nature of risk, the person best able to prevent the dangerous condition, and the party who should bear the costs attributable to the injury.
Some of the more important considerations are apparent. The public has a right to travel on the sidewalk unimpeded by obstructions or dangerous conditions. The property owner is generally in the best position to become aware of disrepair, and then correct the condition. Moreover, the owner has a special interest in having a walk in good condition. If the property is being used for a business activity, it is in the owner’s interest to have safe means of ingress and egress for customers, employees and other invitees. The residential owner is concerned with the safety of his family, invitees and himself as well as the appearance of his property. Further, the owner generally may purchase an insurance policy covering liability to pedestrians injured because of defects in the sidewalk. When the injury to the innocent pedestrian is weighed against the interests of the property owner who was in a position to prevent the hazardous condition, notions of fairness weigh heavily in favor of imposing the obligation.
This policy has been affirmatively recognized by the Legislature in N.J.S.A. 40:65-14 which authorizes
[a]ny municipality [to] prescribe by general ordinance in what case curbs and sidewalks shall be constructed, repaired, altered, relaid or maintained at the expense of the abutting landowners .... *162The statute further prescribes that a municipality pursuant to a resolution may serve a notice requiring the owner to repair the sidewalk in 30 days and that in default thereof the municipality may do the work, the cost to become a lien on the property.
In some circumstances the municipality may maintain the public sidewalk. Arguably, when that is true the property owner has no control over, or the right to correct, the condition. I would recognize that circumstance as an exception to the general proposition which would operate as a defense to be established by the property owner. Here, of course, the City of Newark has long had an ordinance charging any person owning, leasing, or occupying any structure or vacant lot bordering any street with maintaining the sidewalk in good repair. Ante at 155. The duty of the landowner having been expressly confirmed, the judgment should be reversed.