In DiLorenzo v S.I.J. Realty Co., LLC, the Appellate Division, Second Department affirmed the dismissal of plaintiff’s slip-and-fall claim. There, plaintiff sued the owner of the property where she fell, as well as the company which contracted to provide cleaning services at the premises. Generally: A plaintiff’s inability to identify the cause of her fall is…
Read More Failure to Identify Cause of Fall Dooms Slip-and-Fall CaseBelow is the complaint filed yesterday by plaintiff Michelle Nelson against Con Edison and the owner (Kaoru Demler Murmatsu) of 1646 Park Avenue, one of the buildings that collapsed on March 12th following an apparent gas explosion, killing and injuring several people. Plaintiff alleges that, as a result of the explosion, she fell and sustained injuries…
Read More Harlem Gas Explosion LawsuitIn Swift v. New York Transit Authority, the Appellate Division, First Department modified the trial court’s order to deny defendant’s motion for summary judgment to dismiss plaintiff’s claims of “permanent consequential and significant limitations in use of the knees and a 90/180-day injury.” In order to proceed in court, plaintiff was required to present evidence…
Read More Plaintiff Raises Triable Issue of Fact that Knee Injury Was a “Serious Injury” Under Insurance Law 5102(d)By this point you’ve probably heard about Roy Ortiz, the Colorado man who, after being rescued from a submerged car, is considering suing his rescuers, apparently because they took too long to free him. The reactions of many were predictable: outrage, directed at Mr. Ortiz and (of course) his lawyer. Here’s one of many examples taken from…
Read More Suing Your Rescuers – Ridiculous! Or Maybe Not…In Johnson v. KS Transportation, a car accident case, the Appellate Division, First Department modified a summary judgment dismissing plaintiff’s complaint on the ground that plaintiff did not suffer a “serious injury” within the meaning of Insurance Law § 5102(d). Section 5104(a) of New York’s No-Fault Law provides, in pertinent part, that “in any action by or…
Read More Fact Issue as to Whether Knee Injury Meets “Serious Injury” Threshold Precludes Summary Judgment for Defendant in Car Accident CaseIn Ali v. State of New York, the Appellate Division, Second Department held that the lower court properly dismissed plaintiff’s claim for personal injuries allegedly suffered as a result of defendant’s employee’s conduct. Here are the facts: On February 24, 2009, the claimant was in the waiting area of the office of the New York…
Read More Employer Not Liable for Employee’s Conduct Under the Doctrine of “Respondeat Superior”Personal injury lawsuits arising from car accidents are quite common, and liability is typically determined by assessing whether the defendant (often a driver) behaved negligently – that is, by failing to exercise that degree of care that a reasonably prudent person would have used under the same circumstances. As recently illustrated in the Second Department’s…
Read More Pedestrian Injured by Police Car Presents Sufficient Evidence to Overcome Summary JudgmentIn Krajniak v. Jin Y Trading, the Appellate Division, Second Department affirmed a summary judgment for plaintiff on the issue of liability in a car accident case, due to the defendant’s violation of Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1141. The statute provides. The driver of a vehicle intending to turn to the left within an…
Read More Unsafe Left Turn Results in Proper Award of Summary Judgment to Plaintiff in Car Accident CaseA recent First Department decision, Abott v. City of New York, holds that the trial court properly dismissed plaintiff’s trip-and-fall complaint: The court properly directed a verdict for defendant City, as there was no rational process that would lead the trier of fact to find for plaintiff, who was injured after stepping into a pothole.…
Read More Pothole Injury Case Dismissed in Light of Prior RepairsIn Slattery v. Sachem N. High Sch., the Appellate Division, Second Department recently affirmed the lower court’s denial of defendants’ motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff claimed she “tripped and fell due to a difference in height between two concrete slabs of a sidewalk abutting the defendants’ premises.” The court explained the legal standard for determining…
Read More Sidewalk Defect Was Not “Trivial” as a Matter of Law; Trip-and-Fall Case Continues