OWNER OF THE FARM AND HAY CONVEYOR OWED A DUTY OF CARE TO PLAINTIFF WHO WAS INJURED BY THE CONVEYOR, LICENSEES USING THE CONVEYOR ON OWNER’S LAND DID NOT OWE A DUTY OF CARE TO PLAINTIFF, WHO WAS A VOLUNTEER HELPING THE LICENSEES (FOURTH DEPT).
The Fourth Department, reversing (modifying) Supreme Court determined there was a question of fact whether, Burdick, the owner of a farm and a hay conveyor, was liable for plaintiff’s injury from catching her finger in the unguarded conveyor chain. Burdick, as part of an oral agreement, allowed the Fosters to use the hay conveyor on Burdick’s property and was aware that persons, like plaintiff, would assist the Fosters. Plaintiff was a volunteer, not an employee. The court found that Burdick, as the owner of the farm and the conveyor, owed a duty of care to the plaintitff and there was a question of fact whether the conveyor presented a dangerous condition that was not open and obvious. The Fosters owed no duty of care to plaintiff. But the Fosters, who now own the conveyor, were required to allow plaintiff to inspect the conveyor in connection with the lawsuit:
It is well established that, “[b]ecause a finding of negligence must be based on the breach of a duty, a threshold question in tort cases is whether the alleged tortfeasor owed a duty of care to the injured party” … . “New York landowners owe people on their property a duty of reasonable care under the circumstances to maintain their property in a safe condition” … . “The duty of a landowner to maintain [his or her] property in a safe condition extends to persons whose presence is reasonably foreseeable by the landowner” … . “[A] landowner’s duty to warn of a latent, dangerous condition on his [or her] property is a natural counterpart to his [or her] duty to maintain [the] property in a reasonably safe condition” … . “It is well settled that both owners and occupiers owe a duty of reasonable care to maintain property in a safe condition and to give warning of unsafe conditions that are not open and obvious” … . …
Additionally, where, as here, “the defendant [property] owner provides . . . allegedly defective equipment, the legal standard [with respect to negligence] is whether the owner created the dangerous or defective condition or had actual or constructive notice thereof’ . . . , because in that situation the defendant property owner is possessed of the authority, as owner, to remedy the condition’ of the defective equipment” … . …
The Fosters, at most, “had a license to [perform hay baling work on Burdick’s farm with his hay conveyor], but the right to use the [farm and hay conveyor] does not establish control or give rise to a duty to warn”… . “In the absence of any authority to maintain or control the [farm or the hay conveyor], or to correct any unsafe condition, [the Fosters] owed no duty of care with respect to any unsafe condition on [Burdick’s] premises” … . Breau v Burdick, 2018 NY Slip Op 07851, Fourth Dept 11-16-18
NEGLIGENCE (OWNER OF THE FARM AND HAY CONVEYOR OWED A DUTY OF CARE TO PLAINTIFF WHO WAS INJURED BY THE CONVEYOR, LICENSEES USING THE CONVEYOR ON OWNER’S LAND DID NOT OWE A DUTY OF CARE TO PLAINTIFF, WHO WAS A VOLUNTEER HELPING THE LICENSEES (FOURTH DEPT))/PRODUCTS LIABILITY (OWNER OF THE FARM AND HAY CONVEYOR OWED A DUTY OF CARE TO PLAINTIFF WHO WAS INJURED BY THE CONVEYOR, LICENSEES USING THE CONVEYOR ON OWNER’S LAND DID NOT OWE A DUTY OF CARE TO PLAINTIFF, WHO WAS A VOLUNTEER HELPING THE LICENSEES (FOURTH DEPT))/DUTY OF CARE (NEGLIGENCE, PRODUCTS LIABILITY, OWNER OF THE FARM AND HAY CONVEYOR OWED A DUTY OF CARE TO PLAINTIFF WHO WAS INJURED BY THE CONVEYOR, LICENSEES USING THE CONVEYOR ON OWNER’S LAND DID NOT OWE A DUTY OF CARE TO PLAINTIFF, WHO WAS A VOLUNTEER HELPING THE LICENSEES (FOURTH DEPT))