Subcontractor Which Did Not Supervise Injured Plaintiff or Control Site Safety May Still Be Liable Under Common-Law Negligence for Creating the Dangerous Condition

The Second Department determined questions of fact existed whether a subcontractor (Geiger), which did not supervise the injured plaintiff or control safety measures, could be held liable for common-law negligence for creating the dangerous condition:

Supreme Court properly denied that branch of Geiger’s motion which was for summary judgment dismissing the cause of action to recover damages for common-law negligence insofar as asserted against it. A subcontractor “may be held liable for negligence where the work it performed created the condition that caused the plaintiff’s injury even if it did not possess any authority to supervise and control the plaintiff’s work or work area” … . An award of summary judgment in favor of a subcontractor on a negligence claim is improper where the “evidence raise[s] a triable issue of fact as to whether [the subcontractor’s] employee created an unreasonable risk of harm that was the proximate cause of the injured plaintiff’s injuries” … . Here, there are triable issues of fact as to whether employees of Geiger created the dangerous condition that allegedly caused the injured plaintiff’s accident. Lombardo v Tag Ct. Sq.,LLC,  2015 NY Slip Op 02458, 2nd Dept 3-25-15