Slip/Trip and Fall

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It’s a fairly typical personal injury scenario: a customer, while on defendant’s premises, slips and falls on (for example) a slippery substance, sustains injury, and sues to recover damages. What may seem like a straightforward situation is anything but. This is illustrated by the recent case of Dequinzio v. Gristedes Food, Inc., decided by New…

Read More Court Dismisses Supermarket Slip-and-Fall Case, Where Defendants Did Not Have a Reasonable Opportunity to Clean Up Injury-Causing Spill
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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 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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Jahn v. SH Entertainment, LLC is a slip-and-fall case decided by the First Department on May 8, 2014. The court affirmed the denial of defendant’s motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff was injured when he slipped and fell on water. Generally, “[a] defendant who moves for summary judgment in a slip-and-fall case has the initial burden of…

Read More Slip/Fall Case Continues; Employees May Have Left Out Bags of Ice
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In Phillip v Young Men’s Christian Assn. of Greater N.Y. (a slip-and-fall case), the Appellate Division, First Department recently affirmed the lower court’s grant of defendant’s motion for summary judgment. “Defendant met its initial burden of demonstrating lack of notice of the wet condition of the locker room floor where plaintiff allegedly slipped by submitting evidence…

Read More General Awareness of Wet Condition Insufficient to Survive Summary Judgment in Slip/Fall Case
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Today’s case summary comes out of the Second Department. In the illuminating decision of Conneally v. Diocese of Rockville Centre, decided April 23, 2014, the court affirmed the trial court’s denial of defendants’ motion for summary judgment. This case addresses a landowner’s duty to properly light their premises. “At about 9:00 p.m. on August 20, 2009,…

Read More Plaintiff Survives Summary Judgment in Premises Liability Case Involving Alleged Inadequate Lighting
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In Atchison v. Metropolitan Enterprises, a recent trip-and-fall case, a Brooklyn trial court rejected defendants’ attempt to subject plaintiff to a second Independent Medical Examination (IME). They sought the second examination due to intervening events which, to put it mildly, raised questions as to the first doctor’s credibility. (Note: As a plaintiff’s lawyer, I – as…

Read More Perjury Allegation Against Medical Expert Does Not Justify Second Medical Examination of Plaintiff in Trip-and-Fall Personal Injury Suit
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In Rosario v. City of New York, a trip-and-fall case, the Appellate Division, First Department reversed the trial court’s denial of defendant’s motions for a directed verdict and/or judgment notwithstanding the verdict. “To impose liability on defendant City for a defective condition of a tree well, plaintiff must show that the municipality either received prior written…

Read More Citing Lack of Prior Written Notice, Court Dismisses Tree Well Trip-and-Fall Case
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In Abott v. City of New York, the Appellate Division, First Department affirmed a directed verdict for the defendant City of New York. Plaintiff sued to recover for injuries sustained after stepping into a pothole. This scenario implicates New York City’s “Pothole Law”, codified as New York City Administrative Code § 7-201. Section 7-201(c)(2) of that statute…

Read More Repairs to Pothole Over One Year Before Accident Defeats Injury Claim Against City of New York
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In Meyer v. City of New York, the Appellate Division, Second Department affirmed the dismissal of plaintiff’s trip-and-fall personal injury suit against defendant real property owners. Defendants moved for summary judgment “on the ground that, under section 7-210 of the Administrative Code of the City of New York (hereinafter the Sidewalk Law), they were not…

Read More Court Affirms Dismissal of Sidewalk Trip-and-Fall Case Under NYC Sidewalk Law’s “Residential” Exemption
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