Partner James P. Ricciardi and Associate Kirsten Orr were awarded summary judgment in an Essex County, NJ premises liability action. Plaintiff, a fireman responding to a fire at a property adjacent to their clients’ owned property, was injured while climbing over a property dividing wall in an effort to gain access to the neighboring fire property. Although the facts evidenced that the accident was caused by an alleged condition existing entirely on the neighboring property, Plaintiff and Co-Defendant would not agree to a dismissal on a theory that our clients invited the first responders onto their property, as a means of access to the fire property, and may have provided a means by which Plaintiff sought to climb over the property dividing wall. Through the depositions of Plaintiff, Defendants, and a non-party fact witness, Fleischner Potash was able to establish the lack of a duty owed under the law, and a lack of control over the alleged dangerous condition, sufficient to warrant the entry of summary judgment, dismissing the Complaint and all cross-claims, with prejudice.
