This decision involved claims against a defendant bank for “negligence, trespass and private nuisance under New York state law.” The bank moved pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 12(b)(6) to dismiss the complaint.

The plaintiffs live in a single-family residential property. Their home shares a “central inner wall” with an adjacent home (adjacent home or neighbor). “Together, the two single-family homes form a single free standing structure.” The plaintiffs alleged that the adjacent home has been “legally abandoned and in considerable disrepair since at least November 2016 and remains in the same ‘disintegrating condition’ today.” The legal owner of the adjacent home had died and that home has been vacant since at least November 2016. The bank is the mortgagee of the home.