R. Jewelry Corp. leased a store located at the corner of Liberty Avenue and Eldert Lane in Brooklyn, with its entrance and storefront on Liberty Avenue. The Eldert Lane side of the store had a windowless, door-less wall, adjacent to cellar doors leading to the building's basement. Of pertinence to this dispute, R. had no access to, or responsibility for, the basement or cellar doors, which were under the control of another tenant. [R’s lease required it to maintain the sidewalk in front of its Liberty Avenue storefront but did not impose any duty regarding the Eldert Lane side of the property.]
After the plaintiff in the underlying negligence action claimed to have tripped over a raised concrete panel around the cellar doors and filed suit against the building’s owner, R.’s insurer claimed it wasn’t obligated to cover the landlord nor responsible for any of the alleged damages because the injury did not arise from the part of the premises leased to R., its insured. After the New York County Supreme Court granted the insurer’s motion to dismiss the case, and declared it was under no obligation to provide coverage to the building’s owner, an appeal ensued.
On its review, the Appellate Division, First Department, agreed that since the area where the injured party fell wasn’t part of the premises leased to R, the court below had “properly granted” the underlying motion and unanimously affirmed the outcome.
Would you say that case was brought by accident?
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DECISION