Ellis v. Hilton United Methodist Church, 187 A.3d 189

Background

Plaintiff Timothy Ellis slipped on a sidewalk abutting a vacant church owned by Hilton United Methodist Church and its Board; he sued for negligence based on uneven/broken sidewalk.
The church ceased worship and programs in June 2011 and was not in operation at the time of the September 9, 2013 accident; defendants maintained premises liability insurance but there was no evidence of any commercial use of the property.
Before discovery closed, Ellis moved to reclassify the property as commercial (relying on Gray) and to strike a charitable immunity defense; defendants cross-moved for summary judgment asserting noncommercial status and no duty to maintain the sidewalk.
The motion judge denied Ellis’s classification motion and granted defendants’ summary judgment, dismissing the complaint with prejudice; defendants conceded they were not entitled to charitable immunity.
Ellis appealed, arguing the vacant church should be treated as commercial (per Gray), that maintaining insurance suggests commercial status, and that summary judgment was premature.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether a vacant church can be classified as a commercial landowner for sidewalk-liability purposes	Church was abandoned and could generate income; Gray supports imposing commercial-landowner liability on vacant properties	Church was used only for religious purposes prior to vacancy and was not operated commercially; mere vacancy or insurance does not convert it to commercial	A vacant church that has not been used for commercial purposes remains noncommercial; no commercial-landowner sidewalk duty applies
Whether Gray controls and requires liability for this vacant property	Gray imposed liability on a vacant boarded-up building that previously generated income; its logic should apply here	Gray turned on prior commercial use and income-generating capacity of the building; it does not extend to properties with no history of commercial use	Gray is distinguishable; liability in Gray rested on the building’s commercial character and recent income generation, which are absent here
Whether maintaining liability insurance indicates commercial status	Presence of liability insurance (like in Gray) implies commercial-type responsibility and should influence classification	Insurance alone does not change the property’s use or legal status	Insurance ownership does not convert noncommercial property into commercial property for sidewalk-liability purposes
Whether summary judgment was premature because discovery was incomplete	Granting summary judgment before discovery closed was error; further discovery might produce facts to support commercial classification	Plaintiff filed the initial motion seeking classification (i.e., treated facts as undisputed); plaintiff did not specify needed discovery or its materiality	Argument not raised below; in any event, plaintiff failed to specify discovery sought or its relevance; summary judgment was appropriate

Key Cases Cited

Gray v. Caldwell Wood Products, Inc., 425 N.J. Super. 496 (App. Div. 2012) (vacant boarded-up commercial building that had generated income was subject to sidewalk liability)
Dupree v. City of Clifton, 351 N.J. Super. 237 (App. Div. 2002) (commercial-landowner exception to general nonliability for sidewalk defects)
Stewart v. 104 Wallace Street, Inc., 87 N.J. 146 (1981) (establishing commercial-landowner duty to maintain adjacent sidewalks)
Lombardi v. First United Methodist Church, 200 N.J. Super. 646 (App. Div. 1985) (use solely for religious purposes is noncommercial for sidewalk-liability purposes)
Briglia v. Mondrian Mortg. Corp., 304 N.J. Super. 77 (App. Div. 1997) (changing use from residential to no use does not impose commercial sidewalk liability)
Brown v. St. Venantius Sch., 111 N.J. 325 (1988) (church-operated private school that charged tuition constituted commercial use for sidewalk-liability purposes)