With foreclosures once again on the rise in New Jersey, courts are grappling with the question of what duty, if any, mortgage lenders have to people who are injured on vacant properties.

On April 21, a state appeals court found that Bank of America had no duty to maintain a foreclosed four-unit apartment building in a suit by a man who claims he injured himself on the abutting sidewalk.

The ruling stands in contrast to one earlier this year by a federal judge who applied New Jersey law to hold that Wells Fargo Bank had a duty of care to a plaintiff injured inside a foreclosed home.