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A WORN MARBLE STEP IS NOT AN ACTIONABLE DEFECT; DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN THIS SLIP AND FALL CASE SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED (FIRST DEPT).

The First Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined plaintiff’s slip and fall action should have been dismissed. The cause of the fall was alleged to be a worn marble step, which is not actionable:

Defendants established their entitlement to judgment as a matter of law in this action where plaintiff was injured when, while descending interior stairs in defendants’ building, she slipped and fell on a marble step that had a worn tread. A worn marble tread, without more, is not an actionable defect …

In opposition, plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact. Having abandoned her claim that defendants were negligent in keeping the stairs free of moisture, plaintiff cannot now argue that the existence of moisture on the stairs would be an actionable condition. Nor did plaintiff’s experts establish that in addition to the worn marble stair treads, they lacked adequate slip resistance, as the coefficient of friction value that the experts used as a standard value was not shown to be an accepted industry standard … . Nor did the experts’ affidavits raise a triable issue of fact, since the opinions concerning the cause of plaintiff’s slip were speculative … . DeCarbo v Omonia Realty Corp., 2020 NY Slip Op 01555, First Dept 3-5-20

 

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Concise Example of a Weight of the Evidence Review

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