Responsibility for a fall on ice in New Jersey depends on who controlled the icy spot and what kind of property it was. Owners of commercial property, including most rental apartment buildings and vacant commercial lots, must clear or reduce ice on the public sidewalk beside them within a reasonable time after a storm ends. Homeowners do not carry that sidewalk duty unless their careless shoveling or other conduct adds a new hazard. A fall on town, county, or state property follows separate rules, starting with a 90-day notice deadline. An Essex County slip and fall attorney at Bendit Weinstock can identify who controlled the ice where you fell.
Commercial or Residential Property: The First Question
In Pareja v. Princeton International Properties, decided in 2021, the New Jersey Supreme Court restated the starting rule: commercial property owners must keep the public sidewalks next to their property in reasonably good condition, and that duty includes removing or reducing snow and ice. The court noted that this sidewalk liability has not been extended to residential landowners.
In 2024, the court widened the commercial side in Padilla v. Young Il An. That decision made clear that every commercial landowner, including the owner of a vacant commercial lot, owes the sidewalk duty, and it explained how to tell commercial property from residential property. The opinion also repeated a 1981 comment that apartment buildings should be treated as commercial. When a building mixes homes and rentals, New Jersey courts look at the facts of each property.
Picture one block in Newark the morning after a snowstorm. The owners of a corner store, a rental apartment building, and a vacant commercial lot each owe a duty for the public sidewalk in front of their property. The family that owns and lives in a single-family house on the same block does not, unless careless shoveling or other conduct added a new hazard.
The Ongoing Storm Rule and Its Two Exceptions
Courts look at timing as closely as property type. The 2021 Pareja decision adopted the ongoing storm rule: a commercial owner has no duty to remove snow and ice while the storm is still going. Absent unusual circumstances, the duty begins within a reasonable time after the storm ends. The court recognized two exceptions:
- The owner’s conduct increased the risk to pedestrians and visitors on the property.
- The danger existed before the storm, such as ice left from an earlier storm that had already ended.
A jury can still decide disputed facts, such as when the storm ended and whether the ice came from an earlier storm.
In July 2026, in a 4-3 decision in Gallardo v. Walmart, the court made clear that the first exception requires unusual circumstances. A contractor salted the parking lot of a Union Township store during a storm without treating it beforehand, and a woman fell there. The majority found that salting a lightly covered lot during a storm is not an unusual circumstance, even though the effort failed, so Walmart owed no duty during that storm.
For you, the storm timeline is the key evidence. Weather records, time-stamped photos, and snow removal logs show when the precipitation stopped and how long the ice sat before anyone treated it.
When a Business Rents the Property
When a business rents the building, control of the icy area decides who answers for it. In Shields v. Ramslee Motors, a delivery driver fell on an icy driveway at a used car dealership in Jersey City. The lease made the dealership solely responsible for maintaining the property, and the dealership controlled the driveway. The Supreme Court found that the tenant alone was responsible for clearing that driveway.
The public sidewalk follows a different rule. The same opinion described an earlier appeals court decision that treats the owner’s sidewalk duty as one the owner cannot shift to a tenant through a lease. It also noted that this rule may not reach an owner who gave the tenant exclusive possession and kept no right to enter and make repairs. In its 2024 decision, the court cited an appeals ruling that extended the sidewalk duty to a commercial tenant in exclusive possession. A fall on the sidewalk outside a leased store can support a claim against the owner, the tenant, or both, depending on the lease and who could maintain the property.
Apartment Complexes and Planned Communities
Tenants who fall inside an apartment complex rely on a separate duty. Shields repeated that a landlord must use reasonable care to guard against foreseeable dangers in the parts of the rental property the landlord keeps control of. For an icy parking lot or shared walkway, the first question is whether the landlord or a tenant controlled it. Our premises liability attorneys review contracts, leases, and maintenance agreements to determine who controlled the area where you fell.
For planned communities, the 2021 storm decision described an earlier ruling in which a homeowners association and its management company had a duty to clear snow and ice from private sidewalks inside the community. That duty reached the community’s private walkways, while the public sidewalk out front still follows the commercial and residential rules above.
Falls on Town, County, or State Property
When the ice is on property a New Jersey public entity controls, such as a municipal parking lot or the walkway outside a public building, the New Jersey Tort Claims Act applies. That law governs claims against government bodies, and three of its rules make these claims harder:
- The act’s weather provision bars claims for injuries caused solely by the effect of weather on the use of streets and highways.
- The act’s dangerous-condition section requires you to prove that the property was in a dangerous condition and that the condition caused your injury and created a foreseeable risk of that kind of injury. You must also show that a public employee’s negligent or wrongful act or omission created the condition, or that the entity had notice in time to protect against it. The entity is still not liable unless its response was palpably unreasonable, a harder standard to meet than ordinary carelessness.
- The act’s notice section requires you to present a notice of claim to the entity within 90 days after the claim accrues (the legal term for when the deadline starts running). A judge can allow late notice up to one year after accrual, but only for extraordinary circumstances and only if the entity was not substantially prejudiced. You can file suit six months after the entity receives the notice, and no suit may be filed later than two years after accrual.
The 90-day section also lets a minor or a person who is mentally incapacitated start the case within these time limits after reaching adulthood or regaining capacity. Port Authority property, such as Newark Airport, has its own notice rule and a one-year deadline to sue.
New Jersey courts have long treated towns, counties, and the State as immune from claims over when and how they clear snow and ice. Underhill v. Borough of Caldwell, a 2020 Appellate Division case, arose from a fall on black ice in a Caldwell municipal parking lot. The court decided the case on other grounds but noted that this immunity could leave people hurt on public property without a claim, and it named a limited exception for public entities that run public housing. A fall on the public sidewalk outside a Newark store or apartment building can still be a claim against that property’s commercial owner, which follows the private-party deadline below.
Shared Fault and the Two-Year Deadline
Expect the insurer to argue that you should have seen the ice. New Jersey’s comparative negligence statute answers that argument: your share of fault does not bar recovery if it is not greater than the fault of the person you sue, or the combined fault of everyone you sue. Your award is reduced by your percentage. A person found 30% at fault recovers 70% of the damages, and a person found 51% at fault recovers nothing.
For a claim against a business, landlord, or other private party, New Jersey’s general deadline for an injury lawsuit is two years after the claim accrues. Exceptions can change the deadline, so seek legal advice as soon as possible.
Talk With an Essex County Slip and Fall Attorney
Founded in 1957, Bendit Weinstock represents people hurt in falls on icy sidewalks, parking lots, and apartment walkways across Essex County and New Jersey. Our trial-ready attorneys investigate who controlled the property and identify all potentially responsible parties. Contact us to schedule a free case evaluation.