Bloomfield Building
On occasion, a Superintendent of an Apartment Building is injured in the course of performing his or her duties and a question arises as to what are his weekly wages for purposes of calculating his temporary disability benefits in New Jersey.
Under New Jersey Landlord Tenant law, Superintendents of Apartment Buildings are not tenants and they occupy their apartment in lieu of paying rent so long as they remain the Superintendent. If the Superintendent didn’t occupy the Apartment, the Landlord would receive a rent and thus the apartment has a monetary value per month. The rental value of the apartment must to added to establish the wages along with any ancillary benefits the Superintendent receives including free internet, free cable, satellite or fiber optic television service, telephone service, parking space or garage, fees charged for having a pet and other benefits.
The New Jersey Workers Compensation Statute defines in N.J.S.A. 34:15-37 “wages” in its pertinent part as:
“Wages,” when used in this chapter shall be construed to mean the money rate at which the service rendered is recompensed under the contract of hiring in force at the time of the accident. Board and lodging when furnished by the employer as part of the wages shall be included and valued at $25.00 per week, unless the money value of such advantages shall have been otherwise fixed by the parties of the time of hiring.
Landlords and/or their Workers Compensation Carriers will argue that “Board and lodging when furnished by the employer as part of the wages shall be included and valued at $25.00 per week”. They will, however, ignore the phrase that follows phrase which states “unless the money value of such advantages shall have been otherwise fixed by the parties of the time of hiring.” Most Landlords will provide a “money value” to a stipend provided to the Superintendent and/or state the value being received by a free apartment which makes the $25.00 minimum stated in the first part of the statute’s sentence not applicable. It only applies if the Landlord and the Superintendent haven’t fixed a value which is very rare.
It is clear from the case law that the value of the apartment rental (plus utilities and other ancillary benefits) must be included in the calculation of the Superintendent’s wages. This is well settled law going back to the 1940’s.<br.< p=””>
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In Britten v. Berger, 18 N.J.Misc. 215, 12 A.2d 875 (Dept. Labor 1940), the court stated “[I]t is common knowledge and a prevailing custom that janitors and superintendents of apartment houses are compensated by being assigned an apartment for their personal use as well as in some instances an additional monetary allowance.” Id. At 217.
In Fitzpatrick v. Haberman, 16 N.J.Super. 490, 85 A.2d 7 (App. Div. 1951), then Judge William J. Brennan, Jr. held that the Petitioner’s wage was based upon adding the monetary allowance and the value of his apartment. In addition to the monetary allowance and the value of the apartment, then Judge Brennan held that additional monies paid to paint apartments must be added together to determine the Petitioner’s weekly wages. Judge Brennan was later nominated to the United States Supreme Court and authored other important cases throughout his tenure as a Supreme Court Justice.
There are other cases which discuss other issues unrelated to the question of calculating a superintendent’s wages which state in their statement of facts that the Superintendent’s wages were a monetary allowance, utilities, and the value of the apartment.
Setting the proper wage effects both the weekly temporary disability benefit of the Superintendent and ultimately the amount of the permanency benefits the Superintendent and/or his family would receive. A low weekly wage results in far less benefits than a higher weekly wage and thus the reason why the Landlord and/or his Workers Compensation Insurance Carrier will attempt to argue for the lower wage.
If you are confronted with this situation, we are ready to assist you in getting the proper wages you are entitled to. Call for a consultation at 973-481-4364