In two recent opinions, separate Appellate Division panels have come to differing results regarding the nature of the duty owed by a commercial tenant to members of the public for dangerous conditions in common-area parking lots.
No Duty Imposed
In Kandrac v. Marrazzo’s Mkt., 429 N.J. Super. 79 (App. Div. 2012), the court held that a tenant, in a commercial shopping center, was not liable, as a matter of law, to a patron who tripped and fell over a parking lot lip/hump when the tenant’s lease required the landlord to maintain all common areas. While acknowledging that duty is normally a fact-sensitive issue, the court held as a general rule that a commercial tenant in a multitenant shopping center does not owe "a duty to maintain an area of the parking lot that the landlord is contractually obligated to maintain."
