Ceiling Collapse Personal Injury Premises Liability Case Continues

In Negroni v. Langsam Prop. Servs. Corp. (App. Div. 1st Dept. Jan. 29, 2015), the court affirmed the denial of defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing plaintiff’s complaint. In this personal injury (premises liability) case, plaintiff alleged that she was injured when the kitchen ceiling in her apartment collapsed.

Defendants were not entitled to summary judgment because they “failed to submit sufficient evidence showing that they neither created nor had actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition.”

Specifically:

The record shows that the same portion of the ceiling had collapsed the previous year and defendants failed to address the allegations that the ceiling had been negligently repaired and that defendants failed to properly inspect the site to ensure its structural integrity, thus causing or contributing to the second collapse, which injured plaintiff. Indeed, defendants’ evidence concerning the work performed consisted merely of invoices for plastering and sheetrock repair. The record further demonstrates that there were leaks in two of the apartments directly above plaintiff’s apartment less than two months before the subject accident, that the superintendent’s inspection several weeks earlier revealed bubbling paint on the wall abutting plaintiff’s kitchen, and that he noted a concealed leak.

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