The Decedent Plaintiff was a guest in the GMR represented Defendant’s apartment and was in the process of taking photographs from the apartment window when she either fell or jumped out of the window falling eight stories onto to the Pedestrian Plaintiff, who was walking on the street below. The Defendant was sued by the decedent’s estate as well as the pedestrian, who was seriously injured when the decedent fell on top of her, alleging that the Defendant was negligence for permitting the decedent to access to the window at issue and allowing her to open it and either fall or jump from it.
Mr. Merrigan filed a motion for summary judgment arguing that the Defendant did not owe a duty to stop the decedent from climbing out of the window, to rescue her from falling or from jumping from the window as the open window at issue was an open and obvious danger and if the decedent did jump from the window said act was not foreseeable to create any duty. Further, Mr. Merrigan argued that the Defendant owed no duty to the pedestrian as the risk to pedestrians on the sidewalk eight stories below from a stranger climbing out or jumping from the window was clearly not a foreseeable one. Counsel for the pedestrian argued in their response to the Defendant’s motion for summary judgment that the Defendant violated the Window Safety Policy of the Housing License Agreement for the Defendant’s apartment, which specifically prohibits the residents of the apartments or their guests from opening the windows of the apartment.
Ultimately, the Court agreed with Mr. Merrigan and dismissed both the decedent’s and pedestrian’s cases against the Defendant.
