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PLAINTIFF WAS STRUCK BY A PIECE OF A BUILDING FACADE WHICH CAME LOOSE; PLAINTIFF SUED TWO DEFENDANTS WHO HAD DONE WORK IN THE ROADWAY NEAR THE BUILDING, ALLEGING THE EXCAVATION LOOSENED THE FACADE MATERIAL; DEFENDANTS’ MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined defendants’ motions for summary judgment should not have been granted. Plaintiff was struck by a piece of the facade of a brownstone which came loose. Plaintiff sued Keyspan Energy Delivery and Harris Water Main and Sewer Contractors alleging excavation work done by the defendants near the building loosened the facade:

Keyspan established its prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law … by demonstrating, through the submission of … an affidavit of a professional engineer, that its work in the roadway did not create the alleged dangerous condition … . However, in opposition, the plaintiffs raised triable issues of fact by submitting … an affidavit from a professional engineer that rebutted the opinion of Keyspan’s expert. …

Harris contracted with the building owners to complete work on a broken pipe connecting the building to the sewer line in the middle of the street. A contractual obligation, standing alone, generally will not give rise to tort liability in favor of a third party (see Espinal v Melville Snow Contrs., 98 NY2d 136, 140). “[A]n exception to this rule applies where the contracting party, in failing to exercise reasonable care in the performance of contractual duties, launches a force or instrument of harm, such as by creating or exacerbating a dangerous condition” … . The plaintiffs alleged that the vibrations from Harris’s work in the roadway created or exacerbated the alleged dangerous condition on the facade of the subject building. Harris’s submissions, which did not include an expert affidavit from a professional engineer, were insufficient to establish, prima facie, that its work in the roadway did not create or exacerbate the dangerous condition … . Payne v Murray, 2021 NY Slip Op 05576, Second Dept 10-13-21

 

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