Personal Injury

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In Caceres v. Standard Realty Assoc., Inc. (App. Div. 1st Dept. Aug. 25, 2015), plaintiff worker was injured when he fell from a ladder. The appellate court reversed the lower court and granted plaintiff summary judgment on liability on his claim under New York Labor Law § 240(1) (the so-called “scaffold law”). Here are the facts…

Read More Fall From A-Frame Ladder; Plaintiff Gets Summary Judgment on Labor Law § 240(1) Claim
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Here is the complaint, captioned Ekberg v. City of New York (NY Sup. Ct., NY Cty., Index # 158642/2015, filed 8/20/15) in which plaintiff alleges that she was injured after being bitten by a NYPD horse while on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. (I’m very curious to know why, in 2015, large animals with teeth are present in…

Read More Lawsuit: Bitten by Police Horse
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Dog-bite injuries can be serious and in some cases deadly. If it happens to you, can you (successfully) sue under New York law for damages? It depends. Unlike in other types of personal injury cases, a person injured by a domestic animal (e.g., a dog) may not proceed on a theory of negligence. Rather, under…

Read More Who’s a Bad Boy? “Vicious Propensities” and New York Dog Bite Law
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In Shenkelbakh v. Riera (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Qns. Cty Aug. 17, 2015), a personal injury bicycle accident case, plaintiff bicyclist sued after being hit by defendant driver. The jury returned a verdict in defendant’s favor, and absolved defendant of liability. The court granted plaintiff’s CPLR 4404(a) motion to set aside the jury verdict. Here are the undisputed facts,…

Read More Injured Bicyclist Wins New Trial on Liability
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In Torres v. Nine-O-Seven Holding Corp., the court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment on plaintiff’s sidewalk trip-and-fall case. After examination of the photographs and the other evidence presented in the record, including plaintiff’s deposition testimony, and considering all the relevant factors, this Court finds that as a matter of law the alleged defect in the…

Read More Trip-and-Fall Case Dismissed; Sidewalk Defect Was “Trivial” as a Matter of Law
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In Castiglione v. Kruse – a personal injury/car accident/pedestrian knockdown case – the Appellate Division, Second Department reversed the lower court and granted the injured pedestrian-plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability. The injured plaintiff was struck by defendants’ vehicle, which was making a left turn from Keith Lane to proceed eastbound on…

Read More Plaintiff Wins Summary Judgment in Pedestrian Knockdown Case
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In Covert v. Wisla Corp. (App. Div. 2nd Dept. July 29, 2015), the court affirmed the Supreme Court’s decision granting plaintiff’s motion to amend the complaint to add a cause of action alleging a violation of the Dram Shop Act (General Obligations Law § 11-101). From the decision: [W]here a plaintiff alleges that he or she was…

Read More Plaintiff Permitted to Amend Complaint to Add Dram Shop Act Claim
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A recent Second Department decision, Bergin v. Golshani, is instructive on the issue of when summary judgment is properly awarded to a defendant in a slip-and-fall case. Here is the law: A defendant landowner moving for summary judgment in a slip-and-fall case has the initial burden of establishing that it did not create the alleged…

Read More Lack of Inspection Evidence Properly Results in Denial of Summary Judgment for Defendants in Personal Injury Slip-and-Fall Case
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School bullying is unquestionably a serious issue. Whether it’s “traditional” physical bullying or so-called “cyberbullying”, such conduct can have negative effects on the victims for years after the fact. Bullying also presents legal issues, namely, whether and to what extent the school will be liable when a bullied victim sustains injuries. A recent case, Amandola v.…

Read More Bullied Student Survives Summary Judgment in Personal Injury (Negligent Supervision, Hiring, Retention) Personal Injury Action Against School
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