QUESTION OF FACT WHETHER CONTRACTORS WHICH DID SIDEWALK/GRATE WORK LAUNCHED AN INSTRUMENT OF HARM IN THIS SLIP AND FALL CASE; THE CONTRACTORS’ MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined that the actions against two contractors (MPM and VRD) which did sidewalk/grate work should not have been dismissed in this slip and fall case. The two contractor defendants did not demonstrate, as a matter of law, that they did not launch an instrument of harm:

In general, a contractual obligation, standing alone, will not give rise to tort liability in favor of a third party (see Espinal v Melville Snow Contrs., 98 NY2d 136, 138). Nonetheless, the Court of Appeals has recognized three exceptions to this general rule: “(1) where the contracting party, in failing to exercise reasonable care in the performance of his [or her] duties, launches a force or instrument of harm . . . (2) where the plaintiff detrimentally relies on the continued performance of the contracting party’s duties . . . and (3) where the contracting party has entirely displaced the other’s party’s duty to maintain the premises safely” … .

Here, the owner, MPM, and VRD failed to establish their prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law by demonstrating that the work performed on the grate and vault did not create the allegedly dangerous condition that caused the plaintiff to trip and fall and, thus, launched a force or instrument of harm … . Randazzo v Consolidated Edison Co. of N.Y., Inc., 2019 NY Slip Op 08236, Second Dept 11-13-19