Articles Posted in Premises Liability

The court in this case has ordered that the motion for summary judgment is granted to the defendant landscape company. Therefore, the personal injury complaint of the plaintiff is dismissed against that particular defendant. The motion for summary judgment filed by the defendant board of managers has been denied by the court.

The plaintiff in this case has filed a complaint and sought damages for her sustained injuries due to a trip and fall accident on the parking lot owned by the condominium complex. The plaintiff allegedly tripped over a tree stump located on the grassy portion of the parking lot. In her complaint, the plaintiff identifies the defendants concerned as failing to maintain and repair the defects of the premises. According to the plaintiff, she was injured because of the defendant’s negligence.

The court was presented with facts for review and finds these to be undisputed by any party. The defendant board of the condominium presented to the court a contract signed by the landscaping company. The contract contained provisions that the landscaping company has the responsibility to maintain the grounds including snow removal, cutting of grass and landscaping.

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A lady was walking outside a restaurant located at 1396 Third Avenue in Manhattan. The restaurant had a permit from the City of New York to set up café tables and chairs on the sidewalk. On the sidewalk there was a tree providing shade for the café tables. Sometime on March 21, 2008 as the lady was walking past the café, she stepped on a raised sidewalk flagstone and that caused her to trip and fall.

She sued the owner of the premises and the owner of the premises sued the tenant (the café) and the insurance company. After the deposition of the lady, the building manager and the café manager, the plaintiff filed a motion for a partial summary judgment against the building owner and seeks that the building owner be declared as liable under the Sidewalk Law of New York. The building owner filed a motion for summary judgment asking the court to dismiss the lady’s complaint against it. And the insurance company asked the court for a summary judgment to dismiss the complaint of the building owner against it.

The Sidewalk Law of New York provides that the owner has the duty to maintain the sidewalk outside its premises in a reasonably safe condition and failing to do so, the building owner shall be liable for any injury. This duty to maintain the sidewalk in a reasonably safe condition cannot be delegated. The Court held that since the Sidewalk Law clearly puts the duty on the owner to maintain the sidewalk, and there is evidence that the building owner owns the property which abuts the sidewalk where the lady tripped and fell, the lady’s motion for partial summary judgment against the owner declaring him liable for her injury is granted.

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A woman alleges that while walking her dog on the south sidewalk, she fell after tripping on a cobblestone brick which had been part of the tree well. She summoned the building owner and the City. The building is owned by a Street Associates. By notice of motion and cross-motion, both the building owner and the City move for an order summarily dismissing the complaint.

The woman testified that while she had probably stopped at the location before, she had not made any observations about the tree or the area surrounding it, nor had she seen the brick or any debris on the sidewalk at any time prior to her fall. Photographs taken after the accident depict a brick on the sidewalk, approximately one foot from the tree well. In an affidavit submitted opposing the building owner’s motion, the woman alleges that she specifically recalls that the night before her accident, she saw the brick on the sidewalk near tree well. A witness also testified that he saw the woman fall on the brick and that he had previously seen cobblestones from the tree well on the sidewalk. The building manager and the limited liability company that manages it, testified that he visits the building every day and every week he cleans its interior and exterior, including the tree well and area around it, but never noticed any loose bricks around the tree well.

Sources revealed that the principal administrative associate of the concern government agency testified that the results of a record search conducted by record searcher for a two-year period prior to and including the accident date yielded no permits, corrective action requests, notices of violation pertaining to permits, applications for permits, repair orders, sidewalk violations, contracts or complaints. The director of forestry testified that the results of a search for records in his department showed no complaints found relating to City-owned sidewalk trees.

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On January 2007, a woman was ascending in a stairway between fourth and fifth floor in the defendant’s building when she stepped on a loosed and cracked marble stair. It tread on half, bent up and fell off, that causes to twist her right ankle and strike her left knee. She left the area where it had fallen and continued up the stairs to her friend’s apartment and stayed until around 5:00 am. She then went back to her own apartment and uses a different set of stairs, changed clothes and went directly to a resort with another friend. Approximately 10 days later, she called an ambulance to take her to the hospital and treat her ankle. Two or three months later, she began to notice a problem of buckling in her left knee and sought treatment for the said condition.

As a result of her injury, the woman alleged in her formal statement that the defendant had actual and public notice for about six months prior to the incident. In the said notice it states that the marble top piece or portion from the step of said premises was caused or allowed to become disengaged from the rest of the step, rendering said step dangerous and hazardous.

After the plaintiff woman certified the Court that the case is ready for trial, the defendant made the instant motion requesting to dismiss the action for lack of any evidence to show the defendant had actual knowledge of the alleged defective condition.

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A woman visited her dentist at 8:45 a.m. on July 31, 2006. Her dentist holds office in a building on South Oyster Bay Road I Hicksville, New York. As she was walking on the sidewalk outside the building, she tripped and fell because a sidewalk flag was raised and this caused her to trip and fall.

She filed a suit in damages against the owner of the building. In her deposition, she stated that as she was walking on the sidewalk, her foot hit something and she fell. After she fell, she saw that raised sidewalk flag for the very first time. She had been going to the same dentist for fifteen years and goes to see him twice every year for her dental check-up. She has never seen the raised sidewalk flag prior to the incident and she has never complained to anyone in the building after the July 31, 2006 incident.

After discovery, the building owner and the building manager filed a motion for summary judgment asking that the complaint be dismissed. They aver that the lady had not offered preliminary evidence that the building owner or manager had created the defect; or that, even if they had not created the defect, they have known it for a reasonable amount of time but have not done their duty to repair the defect. They assert that the lady had not given preliminary evidence of any negligence on their part and so the complaint should be dismissed.

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A man, his wife and his two children watched a concert at an indoor arena in New York City on May 28, 2005. On their way out of the venue at the end of the concert, they were all coming down the stairs: the mother in front, nearest the left railing, the father right behind the mother and their two daughters behind.

The mother tripped and fell while going down the steps. She tried to grab the railing on her left but was unable to and she sustained injuries. As the wife was falling, the husband tried to reach his wife to keep her from falling but the husband also had a trip and fall on the same step. He bounced on his bottom down three or four steps of the stairs.

The man and his wife then sued the arena. During discovery, the couple testified with the aid of a Spanish interpreter. They testified that immediately after the accident the couple was in pain that they did not look at the steps of the stairway to determine exactly what caused them to trip and fall. It was only six months after the accident that the husband went back to the arena to inspect the stairs and found that the defect was a semi-circle shaped chip or wear on the concrete step.

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A widow of a deceased employee found herself responding to the appeal made by his deceased husband’s employer and its insurance carrier. The sudden death of her husband while on a business trip is in question.

On the morning of March 1972, as the now deceased man was in the process of checking out at the front desk of an Inn and Country Club. While on the front desk, he suddenly fell and struck his head on the floor. He came home to New York but unfortunately died one week later. His medical records revealed that the cause of his death is head injury and skull fracture. The said man is the Director of sales training for the employer in New York. He left New York on a business trip to Florida. The evidence discloses that the main objective of the trip of the now deceased man was to give the opportunity to carry on business discussions with customers of the employer and ultimately to address a sales meeting in Florida. All of the expenses of the trip were paid by the employer.

The employer and its insurance carrier appeal from the decision of the board which affirmed an award for death benefits allowed to the widow of the deceased employee based upon findings that the deceased had suffered a compensable accidental fall which resulted in his skull fracture and resultant death and that said accident arose out of and in the course of his employment. The widow claims that his husband did not have an accident arising out of the employment and that the damage was not occasioned by the willful intention of the employee. If the deceased man’s injury was occasioned by intent, he would, of course, be barred from compensation.

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The plaintiff filed a deposition involving a trip and fall accident that allegedly occurred while the plaintiff was walking along the sidewalk between the two buildings. According to the complaint filed by the plaintiff, the two buildings were owned by a restaurant and a pub. The plaintiff pointed out that the weather was clear during that time. The accident occurred in broad daylight.

Based on the testimony of the plaintiff, he came upon two uneven slabs of the sidewalk, causing him to trip on the slab that jutted out of the sidewalk. He fellonto the ground and sustained injuries. The plaintiff was not aware of this uneven portion of the sidewalk since he was looking straight ahead while walking along. The plaintiff further stated that his fall was caused by a seam in the sidewalk. According to his supporting statements, one part of the sidewalk was higher compared to the other part. The plaintiff’s shoe got caught in the seam, causing the plaintiff to fall on the ground.

It was noted by the court that the plaintiff lived near the area and had walked on the same sidewalk frequently. She did not notice the presence of the seam until the accident. The plaintiff was also not aware of incidents prior to the filing of this case.

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Two female pre-school teachers took 72 pre-school students to watch a puppet show at a theatre in Queens. The two teachers, in different areas of the theatre, seated each of their students before the start of the show and before going to their own seats.

As they were walking to their seats, the houselights were suddenly turned off. The entire theatre went dark. As a result of the sudden turning off of the houselights, one teacher missed her step while on the theatre stairs. She fell on her knees and was seriously injured. After she fell, she noticed that there was a strip of light at the edge of each step on the theatre stairs.

The other teacher across the theatre also missed her step on the theatre stairs when the theatre lights were turned off as she was going back to her seat after seating her pupils. She slightly injured her knee.

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The management of a big park in New York City leased a building and the premises adjacent to it on 31 West 71st Street. After leasing the building and the premises, the park’s management corporation decided to renovate the façade of the building. It entered into a contract with a construction firm to do the brickwork. The construction company hired a scaffolding company to put up a scaffold in front of the building so that brickwork can be done on the building.

On March 9, 2007, a man tripped and fellon a broken and cracked portion of the sidewalk in front of the building leased by the park. As the man fell, he tried to arrest his fall: he reached out to hold on the scaffolding pole which had bolts protruding from the pole. But as he was falling, his hand struck the scaffolding pole and his hand broke at the wrist and he fell on his face. For the injury he sustained on his trip and fall, he sued the Park, the management corporation of the Park, the owner of the building and the premises, the construction company laying the brickwork on the building and the company that erected the scaffolding on the sidewalk.

The injured man claimed that his trip and fall was primarily due to the sidewalk but that he was forced to walk on that portion of the sidewalk that was broken because the scaffolding obstructed the sidewalk. Although he tripped and fell on the sidewalk, the fractured bone of his hand was caused when his hand struck the scaffolding which was in his way.

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