In a 4-3 decision Thursday, the New Jersey Supreme Court reversed an Appellate Division opinion in a slip-and-fall case, concluding that all commercial landowners have a duty to maintain public sidewalks and are liable to pedestrians who are injured as a result of their negligent failure to do so.

The state Supreme Court certified the question of whether owners of vacant commercial lots are liable to pedestrians injured by poorly maintained sidewalks abutting those lots. Associate Justice Fabiana Pierre-Louis penned the majority opinion for the court, finding the responsibility falls on the owners of these lots.