Partner, Robert Cosgrove and associate, Rachel Freedman secured a “no cause for action” ruling at arbitration in Gloucester County, New Jersey in a slip-and-fall case involving stormwater runoff at a residential home. In Oya Garonski, et al. v. Robert Bockius, et al., the plaintiff fractured her wrist after allegedly slipping and falling on a large accumulation of slippery stormwater that was draining across the defendant-homeowners’ sidewalk after days of significant rainstorms. Per Judge Robert Morgan’s law of the case, under New Jersey water runoff law, the plaintiffs could not recover against the defendants if draining stormwater alone caused her fall, due to the fact that there was no evidence that the defendants took any action to change the delivery of stormwater to the sidewalk. The arbitration panel held that there was no evidence that the defendants had actual or constructive notice that there was dirt, silt, or any other slipper substances hidden under the flowing stormwater that would have caused the plaintiff’s fall, and thus, 0% liability was assessed to the defendants.

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