Williams v. Ut

This is a motion before answer to dismiss the complaint in a negligence action on the ground of insufficiency. It is alleged that defendant is the lessee of a tenement house, himself renting out the apartments, and that plaintiff, a tenant, was injured as the result of a ceiling falling in one of her rooms. The question is whether he was charged with a duty to make repairs by section 102 of the Tenement House Law so as to render him liable in this action on the reasoning applied to hold the owner in Altz v. Leiberson, 233 N. Y. 16. It was there stated (p. 18) that “ Whether ‘ owner ’ may mean…