Landlord Not to Blame for Tenant's Garbage Dumping Woes

 What Happened:  After years of letting a pizzeria dump its trash in its alley, a neighboring property owner said no more and locked the gateway. At first, the pizzeria put the trash out front, but after local officials complained, it stored the trash inside. The resulting rat infestation forced the pizzeria to close down for several days at a time. The pizzeria blamed its problems on the landlord’s failure to ensure access to the alley, which rendered the premises unusable as a restaurant in violation of its right of quiet enjoyment.  

Decision: The Pennsylvania appeals court upheld the lower court’s decision to toss the case without a trial.

Reasoning: The landlord didn’t do anything wrong, according to the court. It was the neighbor that owned the alley and decided to lock it out. The lease didn’t represent that the alley was part of the leased premises or require the landlord to ensure the pizzeria had access to it. In fact, it didn’t say anything about the alley at all. And the fact that the pizzeria didn’t raise the quiet enjoyment claim until after failing to rectify its repeated rent payment violations did little to improve the smell of its case.  

• Lazarus v. Dough Nation Pizza, LLC: 2019 Pa. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 3272, 2019 WL 4034474