Eaves Brooks Costume Co. v. Y.B.H. Realty Corp

In Eaves Brooks Costume Co. v. Y.B.H. Realty Corp. (76 NY2d 220 [1990]) the Court of Appeals declined to extend tort liability to alarm and sprinkler maintenance companies resulting from the failure of those companies to perform maintenance or inspection duties pursuant to their contracts with the building's owners (Eaves Brooks Costume Co., 76 NY2d at 227). The Court noted that "[i]n the ordinary case, a contractual obligation, standing alone, will impose a duty only in favor of the promisee and intended third-party beneficiaries and mere inaction, without more, establishes only a cause of action for breach of contract" (id. at 226 ). The Court explained that "inaction may give rise to tort liability where no duty would otherwise exist if, for example, performance of contractual obligations has induced detrimental reliance on continued performance and inaction would result not 'merely in withholding a benefit, but positively or actively in working an injury'" (id.)