Premises Liab Slip/Trip Sidewalk Settlement Lien § 7-210 Create Condition
 NYC’s motion to enforce a $35,0000 stipulation of settlement signed by the attorneys, which plaintiff’s attorney opposed on the ground that he failed to tell the client that it would be reduced by a worker compensation lien, granted as there was no proof that the agreement was entered on fraud, collusion, mistake, or accident or that the plaintiff’s attorney did not have authority. Adjoining landowner granted summary judgment on proof that it was a 1 family house used for residential purposes not subject to administrative code §7-210. Plumbing company granted summary judgment on proof that it did not create the condition. DeBlasi v City of New York
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Slip/Trip Wet Floor Circumstantial Evidence Unknown Cause
Nursing home’s motion for summary judgment on ground that plaintiff could not identify the cause of his fall denied where plaintiff testified that a nurse washed his roommate every morning, he previously saw water spill on the floor when the nurse did that, he complained about it at least 10 times, that he heard someone caring for his roommate and walking back and forth from the sink to his roommate that morning, and that the roommate’s shirt was wet after the accident from which a jury could reasonably infer that the nurse spilling water on the floor while washing the roommate proximately caused the plaintiff to fall. Simion v Franklin Ctr. for Rehabilitation & Nursing, Inc.
Comment: This fact pattern could be the pattern jury instruction on circumstantial evidence.
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Premises Liab Stairs Control Subsequent Repairs
Building’s third-party complaint against cleaning contractor properly dismissed where building failed to comply with numerous discovery orders to identify who was responsible for maintenance of the stairway, including subsequent repairs, under CPLR 1010 to avoid undue delay of the resolution of the matter. Discovery regarding subsequent repair is proper when there is an issue of maintenance or control. Soto v CBS Corp.
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Legal Mal Notice of Claim Causation
 Law firm that did not timely file Notice of Claim and was substituted before statute of limitations granted summary judgment because it could not be found to be the cause of plaintiff’s damages where statute of limitations had not run by the time it was substituted. Liporace v Neimark & Neimark, LLP
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Med Mal Attorney Fees
Suspended attorney who was later disbarred was entitled to recover attorney fee and disbursements for work done in medical malpractice case prior to his suspension based on quantum meruit. Failure to file retainer statement did not preclude recovery on quantum meruit since attorney did not pursue breach of contract theory, nor did failure to have a fee sharing agreement. Matter of Grossbarth v Dankner, Milstein & Ruffo, P.C.
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Labor Law §240 Expert Aff Speculation
Plaintiff who fell when a sidewalk shed he stood on while delivering sheetrock to a construction project entitled to summary judgment where no facts contradicted his version of how the accident occurred. Defendant’s expert’s opinion was speculative as it was not based on an inspection of the shed at the time of the accident. Serrano v TED Gen. Contr.
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Negligent Supervision Feigned Issue
School granted summary judgment where 4-year-old tripped on chair while bringing her tray to a trash bin which the court found was an age appropriate activity that the children had done every day. School is only required to provide “adequate supervision,” not constant supervision. Mother’s affidavit that contradicted both her testimony and her daughter’s testimony did not raise an issue of fact. L.R. v City of New York
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Labor Law §241 Labor Law §240 Industrial Code Sole Cause
Where plaintiff fell from a tractor trailer while attaching lifting lugs on a wind turbine, Labor Law §241(6) claims dismissed because industrial code provisions did not apply. The chain that caught his foot was not a slippery condition or foreign substance (§23-1.7(d)), a tractor trailer is not a passageway (§23-1.7(e)(1)), and metal bars welded to the trailer body for access was not a single ladder (§23-1.21(c)). Work was a covered activity under Labor Law §240(1) but lower court should not have granted plaintiff summary judgment sua sponte where there was question of whether plaintiff was sole proximate cause of his injury. Cross v Noble Ellenburg Windpark, LLC
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Premises Liab Slip/Trip Sidewalk
Parking garage denied summary judgment for trip and fall on defect on portion of sidewalk used for access to/from garage where questions existed whether garage made special use of the sidewalk and whether its special use created defect. The duty to maintain was not dependent on an inspection. Boneventura v 60 W. 57 Realty LLC
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Premises Liab Stairs Create Condition Notice Last Inspection
Mall denied summary judgment where worker repairing mechanical system fell when a stair he was descending cracked even though mall showed that it did not create the condition or have actual notice of it because it failed to show that it did not have constructive notice by showing the last time the area was inspected. Hanney v White Plains Galleria, LP
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Premises Liab Slip/Trip Sidewalk Create Condition Notice Last Inspection
Adjoining landowner granted summary judgment where plaintiff slipped on wet cardboard during rain on proof of its garbage disposal practices, testimony regarding daily morning cleaning of the sidewalk, and testimony of several witnesses that the cardboard was not on sidewalk shortly before the accident. Mandarano v PND, LLC
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MVA Comparative Fault Sole Cause Admissibility Hearsay Feigned Issue
Plaintiffs granted summary judgment on defendant’s statements in police report and plaintiff’s affidavit that defendant went through a red light and that plaintiff driver was going straight at 25 mph and could not see defendant’s van because of the height of his motor scooter, train trestle, and a chain link fence establishing that defendant failed to yield the right of way and was the sole cause of the accident. Defendant’s statements to the police were admissions and later conflicting statements presented only feigned issues. Colon v Vals Ocean Pac. Sea Food, Inc.
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MVA Emergency Doctrine
Defendant driver who entered intersection with right of way granted summary judgment where she and plaintiff testified that other defendant driver entered intersection without stopping at stop sign. Evasive moves she took in the less than 3 seconds before impact were not negligence given the emergency situation. Gonzalez v Bishop
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1983 Action Motion to Dismiss
1983 cause of action dismissed for failure to allege that actions of off duty police officer which led to his gun discharging and killing the plaintiff’s decedent where done under color of state law and otherwise failing to allege that actions resulted from a policy or custom of the police department sanctioning such reckless behavior. The officer had been convicted of second degree manslaughter. Everett v Eastchester Police Dept.
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Premises Liab
Empire City Subway denied summary judgment on claim that plaintiff’s description of defect in crosswalk that caused her to fall was at least 3’ from the curb where she also testified that she was not good with measurements and twice noted that the defect was about 3 quarters of the way across the intersection which would place it in the location of defendant’s repairs. Prunella v Empire City Subway Co.
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Dangerous Condition Create Condition Notice Causation
Defendant granted summary judgment where truck driver was injured while manually unloading heavy boxes that broke free from shrink wrap, which he was not required to do, on driver’s testimony that he and defendant’s employees inspected load before it left the warehouse, driver inspected it again after first delivery and no boxes were on the floor. Defendant showed it did not create the condition or have notice of it. Lynch v C & S Wholesale Grocers, Inc.
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Dangerous Condition Question of Fact
Plaintiff met his initial burden on proof that defendant’s repairman failed to ground the control box when replacing a lock receptacle just before plaintiff received a shock, but defendant raised a triable issue by the repairman’s testimony that he never did any work on the control box and its expert’s opinion that the defect was caused by the original misconfiguration of the control box. Megan v New York Stock Exch. Inc.
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Premises Liab Sidewalk Prior Written Notice Create Condition Notice
City of Long Beach and condominium adjoining sidewalk that city had repaired and left covered with temporary patch and cordoned off with barrels and yellow tape over a month before plaintiff fell while riding her bicycle on the sidewalk denied summary judgment where the barrels and yellow tape were not present. Condominium failed to show that it did not breach ordinance requiring adjoining landowner to maintain and repair sidewalk or that it did not have constructive notice of the condition. City proved that it did not have prior written notice as required by its Charter but failed to eliminate the question of whether its repair immediately created a dangerous condition, an exception to the prior written notice requirement. Trela v City of Long Beach
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MVA Pedestrian Turning Vehicle There to be Seen Comparative Fault Expert Aff Speculation
Pedestrian who testified that she waited “a bit” after light turned green, looked both ways 3-4 times before crossing and while crossing street, and did not see defendants’ vehicle before it hit her after she took 10 steps and submitted driver’s testimony that he did not see plaintiff or realize he hit her until he felt the contact, established that the driver failed to yield the right of way (he pleaded guilty to the summons for failing to yield the right of way) and that pedestrian was free from comparative fault. Defendants’ expert’s opinion that plaintiff did not wait for the light or look both ways was speculative. Yuemei Wu v Automotive Rentals, Inc.
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MVA Rear End Nonnegligent Explanation
Plaintiff denied summary judgment where defendant’s affidavit provided a nonnegligent explanation for the rear end collision stating that he saw plaintiff’s car stopped but then reverse striking defendant’s vehicle. Medina-Ortiz v Seda
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Venue Untimely
Defendant’s motion to change venue from Bronx to New York County granted even though demand for venue change and motion were untimely because plaintiff improperly indicated that plaintiff resided in the Bronx on summons and defendant moved as soon as it became aware of the error. Gordillo v Champ Hill LLC
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Duty
One defendant granted summary judgment on proof that it did not owe plaintiff any duty in that it did not own the property where the attack took place and that another company was responsible for all building security. Guzman v Promesa Found., Inc.
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Legal Mal Collateral Estoppel
Plaintiff’s claims for legal malpractice are barred by collateral estoppel where defendant’s co-counsel was granted summary judgment involving the same claims in New Mexico and plaintiff did not dispute that it vigorously opposed that motion. Guidance Endodontics, LLC v Olshan Grundman, Frome Rosensweig & Wolosky, LLP
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