Personal Injury

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In Martyniak v Charleston Enters., LLC (decided June 4, 2014), a trip-and-fall action, the Appellate Division, Second Department affirmed the denial of summary judgment for defendant. Plaintiff allegedly sustained personal injuries when she tripped and fell over a piece of metal protruding from the sidewalk in front of a Target store located in Staten Island. The court…

Read More Trip-and-Fall Case Continues; Defect Not “Trivial” as a Matter of Law
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In Wittorf v. City of New York, a bicycle injury case, the Court of Appeals reinstated an approximately $2 million jury verdict against the City. The court’s decision turned on the subtle, yet critical, distinction between “proprietary” and “governmental” functions. Judge Graffeo authored the opinion. Here are the facts of this bicycle injury case: On the…

Read More Court of Appeals Reinstates $2M Bicycle Injury Verdict, Finding That Closing Road Was a “Proprietary” Governmental Function
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In Quintana v TCR, Tennis Club of Riverdale, Inc., a slip-and-call case decided June 5, 2014, the Appellate Division, First Department affirmed the denial of defendant’s motion for summary judgment. The court held: Defendant’s sole argument on this appeal is that it is entitled to summary judgment because plaintiff failed or is unable to identify the…

Read More Slip-and-Fall Case Continues, Where Plaintiff Expressly Testified That She “Slipped in Water”
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Below is the lawsuit, captioned Myrella Ikeda v. J. Sisters 57, Inc. et al., 14-cv-3570, recently filed in the Southern District of New York. According to the complaint: [Plaintiff] visited J. Sisters with a prominent Brazilian hairdresser and television and magazine reporter as part of a photo-shoot for a well known Brazilian fashion magazine. [Plaintiff] arrived…

Read More Model’s Botched Hair Lawsuit
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In DeRose v. Bloomingdale’s Inc., the Appellate Division, First Department held that plaintiff was entitled to partial summary judgment on liability on his Labor Law § 240(1) claim. While this case is but one data point in the ocean of Labor Law § 240(1) case law, it underscores the important point that a worker should not pay…

Read More Injured Carpenter Entitled to Summary Judgment on Liability, Where Supervisor Instructed Worker Not to Use Appropriate Scaffold
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In Kats-Kagan v City of New York, the Appellate Division, Second Department held (in a May 7, 2014 decision) that an ice skater’s personal injury suit should not have been dismissed as against the City of New York. The facts: The plaintiff, an experienced ice skater, allegedly was injured while ice skating at a rink owned…

Read More Ice Skater Did Not Consent to Increased Risk by “Zigzagging” Employee; Case Against City Continues
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Even in cases involving horrific injuries or death, the plaintiff must still prove negligence – that is, a deviation from the relevant standard of care – in order to win. That’s the lesson of Clark v. Amboy Bus Co., decided by the Appellate Division, Second Department on May 21, 2014. In this tragic case of…

Read More Bus-Bicycle Accident Death Case Dismissed, Where Bus Driver Acted With Due Care
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