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PLAINTIFF FELL INTO A THREE-FEET-DEEP HOLE, QUESTION OF FACT WHETHER THE HOLE WAS AN OPEN AND OBVIOUS CONDITION, DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED (SECOND DEPT

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined that defendant’s motion for summary judgment should not have been granted in this slip and fall case. Plaintiff fell into a three-feet-deep hole near where a fence was being installed:

“A landowner has a duty to exercise reasonable care in maintaining [its] property in a safe condition under all of the circumstances, including the likelihood of injury to others, the seriousness of the potential injuries, the burden of avoiding the risk, and the foreseeability of a potential plaintiff’s presence on the property” … . A property owner has no duty to protect or warn against an open and obvious condition provided that, as a matter of law, the condition is not inherently dangerous … . “The issue of whether a hazard is latent or open and obvious is generally fact-specific and thus usually a jury question,” but “a court may determine that a risk was open and obvious as a matter of law when the established facts compel that conclusion . . . on the basis of clear [and undisputed evidence” … . Further, the law is clear that “[e]vidence that the dangerous condition was open and obvious cannot relieve the landowner” of the burden to exercise reasonable care in maintaining the property in a safe condition … .

In this case, the defendant failed to establish its prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law. The defendant’s submissions did not demonstrate, prima facie, that the hole was not inherently dangerous. No evidence was submitted that the hole was too small to create an inherently dangerous condition … . Even if the condition were open and obvious—and it is by no means clear that it was—that would relate to the issue of comparative fault, and not absolve the landowner of all fault … . Kastin v Ohr Moshe Torah Inst., Inc., 2019 NY Slip Op 01582, Second Dept 3-6-19

 

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LATE NOTICE OF CLAIM IN THIS MEDICAL MALPRACTICE ACTION, SERVED THREE YEARS... SANCTIONS PROPERLY IMPOSED FOR BRINGING A FRIVOLOUS LAWSUIT (SECOND DEPT).