Jennifer Moran (Partner-Madison, NJ) obtained summary judgment in the New Jersey Superior Court, Essex County, for Wilson Elser’s commercial property owner client in a premises liability matter. The plaintiff alleged he was injured in a fall after reporting to work at a warehouse property owned by the client, where his employer was a tenant. The plaintiff's complaint alleged that recurrent flooding, inadequate drainage, and the absence of guardrails rendered the loading dock area unsafe, and that our client, as landlord, failed to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition.

Applying the duty framework in Hopkins v. Fox & Lazo Realtors and the proximate cause principles in Vega by Muniz v. Piedilato, the court found that the plaintiff's own testimony established that no condition on the ledge of the loading dock caused his fall, and that the alleged drainage, known flooding, and lack of guardrail were too attenuated from the actual mechanism of the fall to establish proximate cause. The court further held that the plaintiff’s expert report did not create a genuine issue of material fact.

Ultimately, the court granted Wilson Elser’s motion for summary judgment, dismissing the plaintiff’s complaint against the client with prejudice. The decision came just weeks before the scheduled September 2026 trial date, successfully denying the plaintiff’s $1,750,000 demand.

Additionally, our client’s third-party complaint against the tenant (plaintiff’s employer) sought to recover defense fees and indemnification. The third-party defendant’s motion for summary judgment seeking to dismiss the third-party complaint was pending while Wilson Elser’s motion was being decided. That motion is now moot. Of note, however, the tenant’s carrier had been paying defense fees and costs during the pending litigation.