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PLAINTIFF RAISED A QUESTION OF FACT WHETHER DEFENDANT CONTRACTOR CREATED AN UNREASONABLE RISK OF HARM WHEN INSTALLING A FLOOR AND THEREFORE OWED A DUTY TO PLAINTFF, HOWEVER THE DEFECT WAS TRIVIAL AS A MATTER OF LAW.

The Fourth Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined plaintiff had raised an issue of fact whether defendant contractor owed a duty to plaintiff because its flooring work created an unreasonable risk of harm to others. However Supreme Court erred in not finding the defect trivial as a matter of law:

Here, the record establishes that the bullnose tile was slightly less than one-half of an inch in height and was not the same color as the tile floor. * * * …”[T]he test established by the case law in New York is not whether a defect is capable of catching a pedestrian’s shoe. … [T]he relevant questions are whether the defect was difficult for a pedestrian to see or to identify as a hazard or difficult to pass over safely on foot in light of the surrounding circumstances” … . Upon our review of the photos of the alleged defect and in view of the less than ½-inch height of the bullnose tile and the circumstances surrounding decedent’s accident … , we conclude that, although an accident occurred that is “traceable to the defect, there is no liability” because the alleged defect ” is so slight that no careful or prudent [person] would reasonably anticipate any danger from its existence’ ” under the circumstances present here … . Stein v Sarkisian Bros., Inc., 2016 NY Slip Op 07501, 4th Dept 11-10-16

NEGLIGENCE (PLAINTIFF RAISED A QUESTION OF FACT WHETHER DEFENDANT CONTRACTOR CREATED AN UNREASONABLE RISK OF HARM WHEN INSTALLING A FLOOR AND THEREFORE OWED A DUTY TO PLAINTFF, HOWEVER THE DEFECT WAS TRIVIAL AS A MATTER OF LAW)/CONTRACT LAW (TORT LIABILITY TO THIRD PARTIES, PLAINTIFF RAISED A QUESTION OF FACT WHETHER DEFENDANT CONTRACTOR CREATED AN UNREASONABLE RISK OF HARM WHEN INSTALLING A FLOOR AND THEREFORE OWED A DUTY TO PLAINTFF, HOWEVER THE DEFECT WAS TRIVIAL AS A MATTER OF LAW)/SLIP AND FALL (PLAINTIFF RAISED A QUESTION OF FACT WHETHER DEFENDANT CONTRACTOR CREATED AN UNREASONABLE RISK OF HARM WHEN INSTALLING A FLOOR AND THEREFORE OWED A DUTY TO PLAINTFF, HOWEVER THE DEFECT WAS TRIVIAL AS A MATTER OF LAW)/TRIVIAL DEFECT (SLIP AND FALL, PLAINTIFF RAISED A QUESTION OF FACT WHETHER DEFENDANT CONTRACTOR CREATED AN UNREASONABLE RISK OF HARM WHEN INSTALLING A FLOOR AND THEREFORE OWED A DUTY TO PLAINTFF, HOWEVER THE DEFECT WAS TRIVIAL AS A MATTER OF LAW)

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