During the blistering June heat, a majority of the New Jersey Supreme Court justices decided to adopt the “ongoing storm rule” that states commercial landowners do not owe a duty of care to clear snow or ice from their properties before it stops accumulating.

In Pareja v. Princeton International Properties, the court decided 5-2 that the storm rule applies in this case. In so doing, the majority reversed the Appellate Division’s ruling last year that Princeton International Properties Inc. had a reasonable duty of care to clear the sidewalk where plaintiff Alberto Pareja fell and broke his hip during a snowstorm six and a half years ago.