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Blocking a public space

שו”תBlocking a public space
asked 4 years ago

Hello,
I have a warehouse that I take goods in and out of with heavy carts. A few months ago, someone opened a store next to the warehouse, and there in a public urban area at the entrance is a kind of large, thin, decorated and painted wooden platform. My workers walked over the platform with the cart and it broke. I apologized and paid the platform owner 600 shekels as he demanded. My workers can move it another, less paved and longer route, or move the platform. Goods are brought in and out of the warehouse several times a day and this story costs me several hours of weekly work for which I pay. It doesn’t really make me happy. The store owner told me that he asked the municipality and they told him that from their point of view it is public space but underutilized and they don’t object to placing this platform and don’t demand a fee for it because people can walk through and it even beautifies the area. But the area is public. In short, I’m fed up. I demanded that the platform owner remove the annoying platform and he refuses. We are both observant people. Is this permissible for him according to Halacha? Am I allowed to run over the platform with the carts and have it break and not pay? He is taking over a public area and is effectively blocking my way. I don’t understand in what world that makes sense. Maybe I’ll plant flowers for him all around the store and he won’t be able to set foot there?? I contacted the municipality and in the end it turned out that they don’t care. Yes, platform not platform, they don’t care and they are not going to intervene. Is there anything I can do besides get angry?
Thank you very much.


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מיכי Staff answered 4 years ago
In the first place, I think that if the municipality agrees to let him put things there, it is difficult to raise a halachic or legal argument against him. But now I remembered that there is a place where you can be allowed to pass, and if it breaks, it is his problem. The Mishnah in the Book of Leviticus 27b says that whoever places a jug in a vat and comes across it and breaks it is exempt. This is exactly our case. In the Gemara there, we come to the conclusion that he is exempt because he has no way of looking at the roads and being careful, and therefore the owner of the pitcher had to watch over him. This is the ruling in Rambam, Naskei Mammon 13:5, and in Shulchan Aruch 6:12. Furthermore, not only are you exempt, but if this surface harms you, he must pay you. The municipality’s permission to place the things does not apply here. This is a situation where there is permission to place the urn, and the discussion is only about the obligation to compensate if damage occurs. The Gemara has already stated in the Book of Proverbs 6:1 that there are situations in which you are permitted to place something in a public place and you will still be liable for its damages. Ultimately, you must warn him that this is what you are about to do, and if he does not remove the surface, you can operate there as usual and if there is damage, you are exempt. This is the halakha in my opinion. It is worth checking with a lawyer what the law says, because he can sue you in court and the result there may not necessarily be the same as the halakha.

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