N.J. Supreme Court Holds that Res Ipsa Loquitor Applies When Elevator Doors Malfunction

  By:  Stanley J. Zator In McDaid v. Aztec W. Condo. Ass’n, No. 079325, 2018 WL 3431322 (N.J. July 17, 2018), decided on July 17, 2018, the New Jersey Supreme Court held that res ipsa loquitor applied to a condominium building’s elevator doors that opened and closed on the plaintiff resulting in severe injuries. “Res Ipsa Loquitor” which is latin for the “thing speaks for itself”, is an evidentiary rule permitting the jury at the time of trial to draw an inference of negligence against a defendant in favor of an injured plaintiff under certain circumstances. In order to obtain this legal advantage, the plaintiff must meet three criteria: (1) the injury causing event was something that would ordinarily occur as the result of someone’s negligence; (2) the instrumentality causing injury was in the defendant’s exclusive control; and (3) the injury was not the result of the plaintiff’s own neglect. This doctrine is…

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