The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments over whether the seller of a house is required to disclose to potential buyers what the state Superior Court called “psychological damage,” such as a murder or suicide that occurred on the property.
After a split three-judge Superior Court panel in Milliken v. Jacono ruled in November 2011 that a jury should decide whether the seller of a $610,000 home had a duty to disclose to the buyer that a murder-suicide had occurred in it, a divided en banc panel reversed the ruling on reargument last December, finding that the occurrence of a murder-suicide does not constitute a material defect to real estate that requires disclosure under the Real Estate Seller Disclosure Law.
