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In Carriero v. Nazario, the Appellate Division, Second Department affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit arising from injuries sustained by plaintiff when he dove into a shallow pool. Defendants “established their prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law by demonstrating that the plaintiff’s act of diving into the shallow pool was the…
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In Miller v. City of New York, a car accident case decided April 16, 2014, the Appellate Division, Second Department reversed the lower court’s decision denying defendants’ motion for summary judgment, and held that they were entitled to dismissal of plaintiffs’ complaint and all claims against them. This is a long way of saying “plaintiffs lose.”…
Read More Traffic Agent’s Alleged Negligent Acts Were “Discretionary”, Precluding Liability in Car Accident Case
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In Espiritu v. Shuttle Express Coach, Inc., a bus-bicycle accident case, the Appellate Division, Second Department reversed summary judgment for the defendant bus company. Here are the facts: [P]laintiff was riding his bicycle south on Adams Street in Brooklyn when he was struck on the left side by a private shuttle bus owned by the defendant…
Read More Wrong-Way Injured Bicyclist May Continue Case Against Bus Company
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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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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 Case
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In 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”
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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 Judgment
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In 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 Case
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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 Degen v. Uniondale Union Free School District, the Appellate Division, Second Department recently affirmed the denial of plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment on his Labor Law § 240(1) claim. “In order to establish liability under Labor Law § 240(1), there must be a violation of the statute, and the violation must be a proximate cause…
Read More Plaintiff Denied Summary Judgment on Labor Law § 240(1) Claim