THE STREET REPAIR WORK DONE BY THE CITY IN THE AREA WHERE PLAINTIFF SLIPPED AND FELL WAS DONE MORE THAN A YEAR BEFORE AND DETERIORATED GRADUALLY OVER TIME; IN ORDER FOR THE CITY TO BE LIABLE FOR CREATING THE DANGEROUS CONDITION THE DEFECT MUST HAVE BEEN THE IMMEDIATE RESULT OF THE WORK (FOURTH DEPT).
The Fourth Department, reversing (modifying) Supreme Court, dismissed the action against the city in this slip and fall case. There was a question whether the city repair to the street deteriorated over a period of a year or more. But in order to be liable for creating a dangerous condition, the defect must be the “immediate result” of the work done:
Plaintiffs failed to raise “a triable issue of fact concerning the applicability of [an] exception to the prior written notice requirement, i.e., whether the City created the allegedly dangerous condition through an affirmative act of negligence” … . The exception is limited to work by the City that immediately results in the existence of a dangerous condition. Although the record supports the inference that the City may have created a dangerous condition by failing to replace a temporary cold patch with a permanent repair, the resulting allegedly dangerous condition here developed over a period greater than a year and did not “immediately result” from the City’s work … . Graham v City of Syracuse, 2024 NY Slip Op 00710, Fourth Dept 2-9-24
Practice Point: In a slip and fall case, in order for a city to be liable for creating the dangerous condition, the defect must be the “immediate result” of the work done by the city. Here the work was done more than a year before and the defect developed gradually over time. The city was not liable.