Another Summary Judgment Win in New York
Clausen Miller associate Stephen R. Stimmler recently obtained summary judgment in Queens County Supreme Court on behalf of a client homeowner in a slip and fall accident case that was valued in the mid six figures.
Plaintiff claimed that she came out of the home she rented from our client in the middle of the night during a snowstorm and stepped into a tree well that she could not see because both the sidewalk and tree well were covered with snow. She claimed that our client was negligent for breach of duty under statute to remove snow from the sidewalk. She also claimed that our client was negligent under common law for shoveling the snow in such a way that it created a hazard to pedestrians. Plaintiff produced deposition testimony and an expert meteorologist affidavit in support of her opposition.
We argued that our client didn’t have a duty to remove any snow because there was an ongoing storm. Under the storm in progress doctrine, a landowner’s duty to remedy a dangerous condition caused by a storm is suspended until a reasonable time after the storm has ended, and under NYC Administrative Code 16-123, that suspends the duty to remove snow within 4 hours of cessation of the snowfall or if the precipitation ends between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m., the 4 hour window to remove the snow is suspended until 7 a.m. We also argued that there was no evidence snow had been shoveled to create a hazard using weather records and plaintiff’s own testimony that the sidewalk had not been shoveled. Finally, we argued that plaintiff’s fall was a result of stepping into a tree well, which is solely the responsibility of the City and not the adjacent property owner where the adjacent property owner did not cause or create the condition on the tree well or make a special use of the tree well, which was the case here.
The court found no evidence snow had been shoveled and focused on what caused the plaintiff to fall, which was the tree well, and that the duty to maintain the tree well rested squarely with the City and not our client, the adjacent property owner. The court granted summary judgment in its entirety and dismissed the case against our client.
Stephen R. Stimmler