DEFENDANT DID NOT DEMONSTRATE IT DID NOT CREATE OR HAVE NOTICE OF THE WATER ON THE FLOOR WHERE PLAINTIFF FELL, WHETHER PLAINTIFF HAD PRIOR NOTICE OF THE CONDITION IS A COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE ISSUE THAT DOES NOT PRECLUDE SUMMARY JUDGMENT (FIRST DEPT).
The First Department determined defendant’s motion for summary judgment in this “water on floor” slip and fall case was properly denied. The defendant did not demonstrate it did not create or have notice of the condition. The fact that plaintiff may have had prior awareness of the condition was a comparative negligence issue that does not preclude summary judgment:
Defendant failed to sustain its prima facie burden of showing that it did not create or have notice of the puddle of water in front of a nurses’ station in the emergency room. Although its operations manager testified to general cleaning and inspection procedures, he did not state that they were followed on the day of the accident, did not know if he worked that day, and did not know when the area was last inspected … .
Defendant’s argument that plaintiff’s negligence was the sole proximate cause of the accident in that she admitted that she saw the puddle several times before she fell, is unavailing. Plaintiff testified that she did not see the water immediately prior to the fall as she was looking straight ahead. Plaintiff did not deliberately undertake a course of action severing the nexus between defendant’s alleged negligence and her injury … . Plaintiff’s prior awareness of the water condition does not require dismissal of the complaint because it is relevant only to the issue of her comparative negligence … . Socorro v New York Presbyt. Weill Cornell Med. Ctr., 2018 NY Slip Op 02723, First Dept 4-19-18
NEGLIGENCE (SLIP AND FALL, DEFENDANT DID NOT DEMONSTRATE IT DID NOT CREATE OR HAVE NOTICE OF THE WATER ON THE FLOOR WHERE PLAINTIFF FELL, WHETHER PLAINTIFF HAD PRIOR NOTICE OF THE CONDITION IS A COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE ISSUE THAT DOES NOT PRECLUDE SUMMARY JUDGMENT (FIRST DEPT))/SLIP AND FALL (DEFENDANT DID NOT DEMONSTRATE IT DID NOT CREATE OR HAVE NOTICE OF THE WATER ON THE FLOOR WHERE PLAINTIFF FELL, WHETHER PLAINTIFF HAD PRIOR NOTICE OF THE CONDITION IS A COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE ISSUE THAT DOES NOT PRECLUDE SUMMARY JUDGMENT (FIRST DEPT))/NOTICE (SLIP AND FALL, DEFENDANT DID NOT DEMONSTRATE IT DID NOT CREATE OR HAVE NOTICE OF THE WATER ON THE FLOOR WHERE PLAINTIFF FELL, WHETHER PLAINTIFF HAD PRIOR NOTICE OF THE CONDITION IS A COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE ISSUE THAT DOES NOT PRECLUDE SUMMARY JUDGMENT (FIRST DEPT))/COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE (SLIP AND FALL, SUMMARY JDUGMENT, DEFENDANT DID NOT DEMONSTRATE IT DID NOT CREATE OR HAVE NOTICE OF THE WATER ON THE FLOOR WHERE PLAINTIFF FELL, WHETHER PLAINTIFF HAD PRIOR NOTICE OF THE CONDITION IS A COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE ISSUE THAT DOES NOT PRECLUDE SUMMARY JUDGMENT (FIRST DEPT))/SUMMARY JUDGMENT (COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE, DEFENDANT DID NOT DEMONSTRATE IT DID NOT CREATE OR HAVE NOTICE OF THE WATER ON THE FLOOR WHERE PLAINTIFF FELL, WHETHER PLAINTIFF HAD PRIOR NOTICE OF THE CONDITION IS A COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE ISSUE THAT DOES NOT PRECLUDE SUMMARY JUDGMENT (FIRST DEPT))