Becker v. IRM Corp., 698 P.2d 116 (1985)

Citation: Becker v. IRM Corp., 698 P.2d 116 (1985)
Parent Document: Becker v. IRM Corp., 698 P.2d 116 (1985)
Jurisdiction: California (state)
Effective Date: 1985-04-29
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1172788/becker-v-irm-corp/ ↗

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Taking an unprecedented leap, the majority imposes “an unusual and unjust burden on property owners . . . [T]he landlord [will] be faced with liability for every injury claim resulting from any untoward condition in every cranny of the building, whether it is reasonably foreseeable or not.” (Dwyer v. Skyline Apartments, Inc. (1973) 123 N.J.Super. 48 [301 A.2d 463, 467], affd. obiter dictum, 63 N.J. 577 [311 A.2d 1].) Any landlord, even one renting the family home for a year, will now be insurer for defects in any wire, screw, latch, cabinet door, pipe or other article on and in his premises at the time they are let despite the fact that he neither installed the item nor had any knowledge or reason to know of the defect. I believe, in conformance with the almost unanimous judgment of other jurisdictions considering this issue, that such imposition of liability is inappropriate. As one authority has remarked, “One problem in analyzing product liability law is our tendency to study rule changes in isolation and not to analyze their aggregate effect on liability costs or primary behavior.” (Epstein, Commentary (1983) 58 N.Y.U. L.Rev. 930, 931.) My colleagues here have taken just such an “isolated” viewpoint.

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