In Echeverria v. Holley, 2016 PA Super 119, 142 A.3d 29 (Pa. Super. 2016), the Superior Court addressed a number of important legal issues involving Pennsylvania negligence law.
For the first time, the Pennsylvania Superior Court recognized a claim of negligence for a landlord’s failure to install a smoke detector in a residential rental unit. In Echeverria, the Superior Court, per the well reasoned opinion of Judge Judith Olson, vacated an order granting the defendant landlords’ preliminary objections. The trial court had granted the defendants’ demurrer, which argued that, because the defendants owed no duty to install smoke detectors, the plaintiffs had failed to state a claim of negligence. Because the plaintiffs may have been able to prove that a landlord’s duty to maintain his property in a safe condition included the duty to install smoke detectors, Olson held that the trial court erred in dismissing the plaintiffs’ claim of common law negligence. However, the court also held that the trial court was correct in denying the plaintiffs’ motion to file an amended complaint to assert a negligence per se claim based upon the landlord’s violation of regulations requiring the installation of smoke detectors in a residential rental apartment. The Superior Court reasoned that such an amendment would be tantamount to allowing a new cause of action. Since the two year statute of limitations applicable to the case had passed, plaintiffs could not introduce a new cause of action via an amended complaint.
FACTS OF THE CASE
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