{"id":918,"date":"2026-10-11T15:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T15:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/?p=918"},"modified":"2026-10-11T15:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T15:22:13","slug":"landlord-held-not-liable-under-virginia-law-for-negligently-harming-tenant-when-the-harm-resulted-from-a-failure-to-correct-a-defect-that-the-landlord-knew-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/2026\/10\/11\/landlord-held-not-liable-under-virginia-law-for-negligently-harming-tenant-when-the-harm-resulted-from-a-failure-to-correct-a-defect-that-the-landlord-knew-about\/","title":{"rendered":"Landlord held not liable under Virginia law for negligently harming tenant when the harm resulted from a failure to correct a defect that the landlord knew about"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Applying Virginia law, the Fourth Circuit held that landlords are not liable to tenants for harm caused by an omission. In this case, although notified of a leaky skylight, the landlord failed to fix it. When the tenant slipped on water that entered the house through the defective skylight and sued the landlord for negligence, the landlord was held to be immune the landlord had not caused the defect by any affirmative action. <a href=\"https:\/\/cases.justia.com\/federal\/appellate-courts\/ca4\/24-1820\/24-1820-2026-02-25.pdf?ts=1772046090\">Metz v. McCarthy,<\/a> 167 F.4th 722 (4th Cir. 2026).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Note that other jurisdictions reject that view. Hemmings v. Pelham Wood Ltd. Liability Ltd. P\u2019ship, 826 A.2d 443 (Md. 2003); Childs v. Purll, 882 A.2d 227 (D.C. 2005); Goffe v. Pickard, 588 A.2d 265 (D.C. 1991); Gregory v. Fourthwest Invs., Ltd., 754 P.2d 89 (Utah 1988).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Applying Virginia law, the Fourth Circuit held that landlords are not liable to tenants for harm caused by an omission. In this case, although notified of a leaky skylight, the landlord failed to fix it. When the tenant slipped on water that entered the house through the defective skylight and sued the landlord for negligence, the landlord was held to be immune the landlord had not caused the defect by any affirmative action. Metz v. McCarthy, 167 F.4th 722 (4th Cir. 2026). Note that other jurisdictions reject that view. Hemmings v. Pelham Wood Ltd. Liability Ltd. P\u2019ship, 826 A.2d 443 (Md. 2003); Childs v. Purll, 882 A.2d 227 (D.C. 2005); Goffe v. Pickard, 588 A.2d 265 (D.C. 1991); Gregory v. Fourthwest Invs., Ltd., 754 P.2d 89 (Utah 1988).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leaseholds"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"jsinger","author_link":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/author\/jsinger\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":919,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918\/revisions\/919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.law.harvard.edu\/joseph-singer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}