Court: NY App. Div. Dept. 2

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In Bhatia v Cummings, 2016 NY Slip Op 00918 (App. Div. 2d Dept. Feb. 10, 2016), plaintiff was driving his car when he was struck in the rear by a vehicle operated by defendant. Plaintiff sued, and defendant (the rear-ender) asserted a counterclaim for negligence. The Supreme Court granted plaintiff’s motion dismissing defendant’s counterclaim; the Appellate Division…

Read More Leading Car’s Alleged Slamming on Brakes and Improper Signaling Creates Fact Issue in Rear-End Car Accident Case
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In Mazza v. Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church, 134 A.D.3d 1073 (N.Y. App. Div. 2nd Dept. 2015), the court affirmed the lower court’s denial of defendant’s motion for summary judgment on liability, and declined to find that the alleged defect upon which plaintiff tripped was “trivial” as a matter of law. In…

Read More Trip-and-Fall Case Continues; Alleged Defect Was Not “Trivial”
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In Foley v. Santucci, 2016 NY Slip Op 00330 (App. Div. 2nd Dept. Jan. 20, 2016), a car accident case, the court reversed the denial of plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment. It explained: [Non-party witness affidavits] demonstrated that the sole proximate cause of the subject accident was the defendant driver’s violation of Vehicle and Traffic Law §…

Read More Left Turn Without Yielding Right of Way Results in Summary Judgment for Plaintiff in Car Accident Case
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In Rodriguez v Judge and Community Church of Astoria, 2015 NY Slip Op 07828 [132 AD3d 966] (App. Div. 2nd Dept. Oct. 28, 2015), the court explained and applied the well-known tort doctrine of “respondeat superior”, under which an employer is liable for the torts of its employees. Here are the (briefly-summarized) facts of this personal…

Read More Church Not Liable to Plaintiff for Assault/Battery by Employee’s Husband
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In Elsayed v. Al Farha Corp., 2015 NY Slip Op 07813, 132 AD3d 942 (App. Div. 2nd Dept. Oct. 28, 2015), the Second Department affirmed the denial of defendant’s motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff alleged that he fell into opened sidewalk cellar doors of a building owned by defendant T&T Steinway, LLC, from which defendant tenant…

Read More Cellar Door Personal Injury Case Continues; Defendant Failed to Establish That it Was an Out-of-Possession Landlord
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Teaching is hard work. In addition to the typical stresses of any job – rude co-workers, overbearing bosses, long hours – teachers are forced to deal with unique challenges, such as physical violence in the classroom. This has been in the news lately; the search results from a Google query for “student attack teacher” are disheartening, to…

Read More Absence of “Special Duty” Results in Dismissal of Injured Teacher’s Lawsuit
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In car accident litigation, a police report often supplies useful information. But is it admissible in court? That was an issue addressed by the Second Department in Memenza v. Cole, 2015 NY Slip Op 06789 (App. Div. 2d Dept. Sept. 16, 2015). The court summarized the law as follows: Facts stated in a police report…

Read More Improperly-Admitted Redacted Police Accident Report Results in New Trial Following Defense Verdict in Personal Injury (Pedestrian Knockdown) Case
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One of the most serious types of car accidents is the so-called “pedestrian knockdown” case, in which a motor vehicle hits a pedestrian. Unsurprisingly and for obvious reasons, in the “car v. pedestrian” scenario, the pedestrian is at significantly greater risk. In Zhu v. Natale (App. Div. 2nd Dept. 8/19/15), plaintiff was walking in a crosswalk…

Read More Pedestrian Wins on Liability in Auto Accident Knockdown Case
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