Premises Liability

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In 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
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In Cocco v. City of New York, the Appellate Division, First Department yesterday affirmed the dismissal of a personal injury lawsuit arising from an errant baseball striking the plaintiff. “[P]laintiff alleges that she was walking on the sidewalk, heading south on Lexington Avenue between 96th and 95th Streets, when a baseball coming from a schoolyard, owned…

Read More Baseball to Face But Sadly No Case
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In Malouf v. Equinox Holdings, Inc., the Appellate Division, First Department affirmed the lower court’s granting of (1) plaintiff’s motion “for spoliation sanctions to the extent of precluding defendant from arguing at trial that the treadmill plaintiff was using at the time of her accident was operating properly or was free from defects”, and (2) third-party defendant Life…

Read More Failure to Preserve Allegedly Defective Treadmill Results in Spoliation Sanctions Against Equinox
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A recent Appellate Division, First Department case, Vivas v. VNO Bruckner Plaza LLC (decided January 7, 2014) illustrates the obvious point that in slip/trip and fall cases, specific attention must be paid to exactly where the accident occurred. The court reversed the trial court’s denial of defendant Payless Shoesource, Inc.’s motion for summary judgment, and…

Read More Tenant Absolved of Liability Where Slip/Trip and Fall Occurred in Location Outside Leased Premises
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In DaSilva v. New York City Transit Authority, the Appellate Division, First Department denied defendant’s motion for summary judgment.  In this trip-and-fall case: Plaintiff allegedly tripped and fell on a step on stairway P4A which accesses a platform in the Rockefeller Center, IND division subway station. It appears that metal treads installed on the horizontal…

Read More Trip/Fall on Subway Steps Survives Summary Judgment
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In Bellini v Gypsy Magic Enters., Inc., the Appellate Division, Second Department held that plaintiff’s complaint should have been dismissed.  Plaintiff alleged that she sustained injuries after she tripped and fell over a wheel stop located in a parking lot of a strip mall in Wantagh. “While a landowner has a duty to maintain its premises in…

Read More Since Wheel Stop Was “Open and Obvious”, Trip and Fall Complaint Should Have Been Dismissed
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In Dominguez v. 2520 BQE Assoc., LLC, the Appellate Division, First Department recently affirmed the denial of defendant Time Warner Cable’s (TWC) motion for summary judgment. First, the facts: Plaintiff was injured when he slipped and fell on a sheet of ice at the top landing of a four-to-five step staircase as he exited a…

Read More Ice Slip/Fall Case Continues
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In Blatt v. L’Pogee, Inc., the Appellate Division, Second Department, recently held that the trial court properly denied summary judgment to defendant in this trip-and-fall case. Plaintiff, a salesperson employed by defendants as an independent contractor, claimed that he tripped and fell on a hazardous condition created by another independent contractor salesperson employed by defendants.…

Read More Summary Judgment Properly Denied to Defendant in Trip-and-Fall Case Under the “Nondelegable Duty Exception” to Non-Liability for Independent Contractor’s Acts
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In Bynoe v. Target Corporation, the Second Circuit recently vacated the trial court’s award of summary judgment to defendant.  In this slip-and-fall case, plaintiff Bynoe sued after slipping and falling on a puddle of syrup from a fallen Del Monte fruit cup in a Brooklyn Target. The court’s decision turned on the issue of “constructive notice”.…

Read More Expert Testimony Creates Issue of Fact in Slip-and-Fall Case
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A case decided by the First Department today, Dillard v. New York City Housing Authority, illustrates the circumstances under which the element of proximate cause may be resolved as a matter of law.  The court reversed a summary judgment for defendant, finding an issue of fact as to plaintiff’s comparative negligence. Here: Plaintiff, a resident…

Read More Plaintiff Was Not Sole Proximate Cause of Slip and Fall on Snow/Ice-Covered Steps
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