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Defendant Not Entitled to Dismissal of Complaint On Ground that Condition of the Property Was Open and Obvious

The Second Department determined defendant was not entitled to summary judgment dismissing the complaint on the ground that the condition causing plaintiff’s injury was open and obvious. Plaintiff stepped back when fireworks were being set off in defendant’s yard. Plaintiff tripped on blocks forming a border around a tree and was impaled on a wooden stake within the border. The Second Department also determined the defendant was not entitled to dismissal of the negligent supervision cause of action (re: third persons setting off fireworks):

A property owner is charged with the duty of maintaining its premises in a reasonably safe condition … . A property owner has no duty to protect or warn against an open and obvious condition, which as a matter of law is not inherently dangerous … . Whether a dangerous or defective condition exists on the property so as to give rise to liability depends on the particular circumstances of each case and is generally a question of fact for the jury … . The issue of whether a dangerous condition is open and obvious is also fact-specific, and usually a question of fact for a jury to resolve … . Whether a hazard is open and obvious cannot be divorced from the surrounding circumstances … . A condition that is ordinarily apparent to a person making reasonable use of his or her senses may be rendered a trap for the unwary where the condition is obscured or the plaintiff is distracted …. .The evidence relied upon by the defendant in support of his motion, which included the photographs attached to his affidavit as well as the parties’ deposition testimony, did not establish his prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law by demonstrating that the subject condition was open and obvious under the circumstances of this case… . Pelligrino v Trapasso, 2014 NY Slip Op 01304, 2nd Dept 2-26-14

 

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