RAISED PORTION OF A FLOOR MAT WAS NOT A TRIVIAL DEFECT AS A MATTER OF LAW IN THIS SLIP AND FALL CASE (SECOND DEPT).
The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the alleged raised area of a floor mat was not trivial as a matter of law:
The plaintiff gave deposition testimony to the effect that she tripped and fell over a raised portion of a rubber mat near the entrance of the supermarket. The plaintiff’s husband testified at his deposition that the raised portion of the mat was “two fat fingers high.” The defendants’ store manager testified at his deposition that the bump in the mat was about half an inch high. …
In determining a motion for summary judgment, a court is generally limited to the issues or defenses that are the subject of the motion … . Here, the Supreme Court should not have granted the motion on the ground that the plaintiff did not know what caused her to fall, since the issue was not raised by the defendants in their motion papers. In any event, the defendants failed to establish, prima facie, that the plaintiff did not know what caused her to fall … .
Here, the evidence submitted by the defendants, including a surveillance footage of the incident, was insufficient to demonstrate, prima facie, that the condition of the mat was trivial as a matter of law and therefore not actionable … . Green v Price Chopper, Inc., 2018 NY Slip Op 05578, Second Dept 8-1-18
NEGLIGENCE (RAISED PORTION OF A FLOOR MAT WAS NOT A TRIVIAL DEFECT AS A MATTER OF LAW IN THIS SLIP AND FALL CASE (SECOND DEPT))/SLIP AND FALL (RAISED PORTION OF A FLOOR MAT WAS NOT A TRIVIAL DEFECT AS A MATTER OF LAW IN THIS SLIP AND FALL CASE (SECOND DEPT))/TRIVIAL DEFECT (SLIP AND FALL, RAISED PORTION OF A FLOOR MAT WAS NOT A TRIVIAL DEFECT AS A MATTER OF LAW IN THIS SLIP AND FALL CASE (SECOND DEPT))