{"id":1835,"date":"2016-04-20T16:42:12","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T20:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/?p=1835"},"modified":"2016-06-02T14:25:23","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T18:25:23","slug":"new-jersey-appellate-division-clarifies-law-liability-property-owners-whose-vegetation-encroaches-neighbors-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/new-jersey-appellate-division-clarifies-law-liability-property-owners-whose-vegetation-encroaches-neighbors-property.html","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey Appellate Division Clarifies Law on the Liability of Property Owners Whose Vegetation Encroaches on the Neighbor&#8217;s Property"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, the New Jersey Appellate Division, in the case of <em>Scannavino v. Walsh<\/em> (Docket No. A-0033-14T1), issued a fourteen page Opinion (Approved for Publication on April 14, 2016), setting forth the law on the liability of property owners whose trees\/vegetation encroaches on the neighbor\u2019s property. \u00a0In that case, plaintiff alleged that defendants improperly allowed the roots of trees on their property to cause damage to a retaining wall between the parties\u2019 properties. \u00a0Because the defendants did not plant or preserve the trees, they were deemed a natural condition for which the defendants were not liable. \u00a0The Opinion is very helpful in dealing with many situations involving encroaching trees\/vegetation between neighbors.<\/p>\n<p>There was a three day bench trial which gave the Appellate Division many facts from which to analyze the law on the subject, and most particularly the law on nuisance. \u00a0The Appellate Division noted that when analyzing nuisance claims, involving vegetation and trees, New Jersey courts are guided by the principles set forth in the Restatement (Second) of Torts. \u00a0The court recognized that the Restatement (Second) of Torts \u201cdraws a distinction between nuisances resulting from artificial and natural conditions. \u00a0The former are actionable; the latter are not.\u201d \u00a0Thus, New Jersey courts have held that injury to an adjoining property caused by roots of a planted tree are actionable as nuisance. \u00a0Similarly, a property owner will be liable for dangerous conditions caused by hanging branches or matter dropping from trees which are not deemed \u201cnatural\u201d, when specifically planted for the purposes of the defendant land owner.<\/p>\n<p>There are fine lines of liability, which require an analysis of the specific facts of each case. There is no liability for the natural growth of tree roots; instead it is the positive acts \u2013 the affirmative acts \u2013 of the property owner in the actual planting of the tree or vegetation, which imposes liability. For example, as set forth in the Restatement (Second) of Torts \u00a7840 and noted in the <em>Walsh<\/em> case, where a possessor of land or his predecessor has planted a number of eucalyptus trees near the boundary line of B\u2019s land and the roots of the eucalyptus trees grow onto B\u2019s land causing damage, the landowner is subject to the rule of liability for artificial conditions, since the eucalyptus trees are not a natural condition. In contrast, there is no strict liability in nuisance where a branch of the defendant\u2019s tree falls onto the neighbor\u2019s garage. <em>Burke v. Briggs<\/em>, 239 N.J. Super. 269, 275 (App. Div. 1990). But then, there are gray areas under the Restatement (Second) of Torts at \u00a7363 \u2013 which may permit liability for damages caused by a tree not planted by the possessor of land where the possessor has \u201cpreserved\u201d the tree. Liability may be imposed because the preservation is some sort of affirmative act (e.g. fertilizing or maintenance to keep the tree alive) on the part of the defendant, and not simply its failure to act.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/new-jersey-appellate-division-clarifies-law-liability-property-owners-whose-vegetation-encroaches-neighbors-property.html\"  title=\"Continue Reading New Jersey Appellate Division Clarifies Law on the Liability of Property Owners Whose Vegetation Encroaches on the Neighbor&#8217;s Property\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, the New Jersey Appellate Division, in the case of Scannavino v. Walsh (Docket No. A-0033-14T1), issued a fourteen page Opinion (Approved for Publication on April 14, 2016), setting forth the law on the liability of property owners whose trees\/vegetation encroaches on the neighbor\u2019s property. \u00a0In that case, plaintiff alleged that defendants improperly allowed the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,226,248,249],"tags":[],"coauthors":[190],"class_list":["post-1835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insights","category-delaney","category-litigation-insights","category-real-estate-land-use-zoning-insights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Jersey Appellate Division Clarifies Law on the Liability of Property Owners Whose Vegetation Encroaches on the Neighbor&#039;s Property &#8212; April 20, 2016 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. 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Walsh (Docket No. A-0033-14T1), issued a fourteen page Opinion (Approved for","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/new-jersey-appellate-division-clarifies-law-liability-property-owners-whose-vegetation-encroaches-neighbors-property.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Jersey Appellate Division Clarifies Law on the Liability of Property Owners Whose Vegetation Encroaches on the Neighbor's Property &#8212; April 20, 2016 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events","og_description":"Recently, the New Jersey Appellate Division, in the case of Scannavino v. Walsh (Docket No. A-0033-14T1), issued a fourteen page Opinion (Approved for","og_url":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/new-jersey-appellate-division-clarifies-law-liability-property-owners-whose-vegetation-encroaches-neighbors-property.html","og_site_name":"Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. Firm News &amp; Events","article_published_time":"2016-04-20T20:42:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-06-02T18:25:23+00:00","author":"John J. DeLaney, Jr.","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John J. DeLaney, Jr.","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/new-jersey-appellate-division-clarifies-law-liability-property-owners-whose-vegetation-encroaches-neighbors-property.html","url":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/new-jersey-appellate-division-clarifies-law-liability-property-owners-whose-vegetation-encroaches-neighbors-property.html","name":"New Jersey Appellate Division Clarifies Law on the Liability of Property Owners Whose Vegetation Encroaches on the Neighbor's Property &#8212; April 20, 2016 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. 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