Daniel Scully, Plaintiff-Respondent v. William Fitzgerald, Defendant-Appellant

Summary

The Supreme Court of New Jersey affirmed the Appellate Division, holding that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment for the landlord because genuine issues of fact existed as to the landlord's duty, breach, and proximate cause of the fire. The Court affirmed that a landlord owes a common‑law duty to keep storage areas reasonably safe and to guard against foreseeable fire risks, and that this duty can be established without expert testimony or a statutory code violation. Justice VERNIERO filed a concurring opinion emphasizing that liability should not attach where the hazardous condition is far removed from the landlord’s control.