IN THIS SLIP AND FALL CASE, PROOF OF GENERAL CLEANING AND INSPECTION PRACTICES WAS NOT ENOUGH TO DEMONSTRATE THE LACK OF CONSTRUCTIVE NOTICE OF LIQUID ON THE FLOOR (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the defendant did not demonstrate it didn’t have constructive notice of the liquid on the floor in this slip and fall case. Proof of general cleaning and inspection practices is not enough:

… [T]he defendant failed to eliminate triable issues of fact as to whether it had constructive notice of the hazardous condition and a reasonable time to correct it … . In that respect, the deposition testimony of the defendant’s witnesses as to their general cleaning and inspection practices, as well as the deposition testimony of a security supervisor surmising, based upon such general practices, when another security officer would have inspected the subject stairwell prior to the accident, was insufficient to demonstrate, as a matter of law, that the defendant lacked constructive notice of the hazardous condition … . Roland v Jackson Terrace Apts., 2021 NY Slip Op 04247, Second Dept 7-7-21