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PORTIONS OF CITY SIDEWALK ELEVATED BY TREE ROOTS AND “REPAIRED” WITH COLD PATCH; QUESTIONS OF FACT WHETHER THE ABUTTING PROPERTY OWNERS AND CITY ARE LIABLE IN THIS SLIP AND FALL CASE (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department, reversing (modifying) Supreme Court determined: (1) there are questions of fact concerning whether the abutting property owners are liable for this sidewalk slip and fall; (2) there are questions of fact whether the city created the dangerous condition by patching the sidewalk. Plaintiff tripped and fell in an area where the sidewalk had been elevated by tree roots:

… [T]he Charter of the City of Buffalo (Charter) § 413-50 (A) specifically imposes on “owner[s] or occupant[s] of any lands fronting or abutting on any street,” i.e., the property defendants, a duty to maintain and repair the sidewalk and provides that their failure to do so will result in liability for injuries to users of the sidewalk. Contrary to the property defendants’ contention, that duty to maintain and repair extends to damage caused by the roots of a tree owned by the City where, as here, “the local ordinance contains no exceptions to the duty imposed on abutting landowners to maintain the sidewalk, even if the allegedly dangerous condition was created by a root extending from [City] property” … . …

… [T]he evidence submitted by the property defendants in support of their motion, which was then incorporated into the City’s cross motion, raised triable issues of fact whether the City performed the “cold patch” repair to the area sometime before plaintiff’s accident and whether the condition of the sidewalk on the day of plaintiff’s accident was the same as when the “cold patch” was first applied. We thus conclude that the City failed to establish as a matter of law that it did not affirmatively create a dangerous condition or that the dangerous condition was due solely to conditions that developed over time … . Beagle v City of Buffalo, 2019 NY Slip Op 09126, Fourth Dept 12-20-19

 

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