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BECAUSE THE RES IPSA LOQUITUR DOCTRINE IS DEPENDENT UPON CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE FROM WHICH INFERENCES MUST BE DRAWN, SUMMARY JUDGMENT IS USUALLY NOT APPROPRIATE; HERE A GARAGE DOOR CLOSED OR FELL ON PLAINTIFF; PLAINTIFF’S SUMMARY JUDGMENT MOTION SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the res ipsa loquitur doctrine was not a proper basis for granting plaintiff’s summary judgment motion. Plaintiff was injured when a garage door at defendant’s vehicle-repair shop closed on her as she left the customer waiting area. Plaintiff could have used an exterior door rather than the open garage door:

“The doctrine of res ipsa loquitur permits an inference of negligence to be drawn solely from the happening of an accident” … . It requires evidence of an event which ordinarily does not occur in the absence of negligence, was caused by an agency or instrumentality within the exclusive control of the defendant, and was not due to any voluntary action or contribution on the part of the plaintiff … . “Since the circumstantial evidence allows but does not require the jury to infer that the defendant was negligent, res ipsa loquitur evidence does not ordinarily or automatically entitle the plaintiff to summary judgment, even if the plaintiff’s circumstantial evidence is unrefuted” … . Summary judgment on the issue of liability should only be granted “in the rarest of res ipsa loquitur cases” where “the plaintiff’s circumstantial proof is so convincing and the defendant’s response so weak that the inference of [the] defendant’s negligence is inescapable” … .

Here, the plaintiff did not establish, by sufficiently convincing circumstantial proof, “that the inference of [the] defendant’s negligence is inescapable” … . Specifically, the plaintiff failed to submit sufficiently convincing circumstantial proof that the garage door and its mechanism were within the defendant’s exclusive control, and that the accident was not due to any fault on the part of the plaintiff … . “‘In those cases where conflicting inferences may be drawn, choice of inference must be made by the jury'” … . Hafeez v TT of Freeport, 2025 NY Slip Op 02327, Second Dept 4-23-25

Practice Point: Consult this decision for insight into the proof requirements for liability under the res ipsa loquitur doctrine.​

Practice Point: Because the res ipsa loquitur doctrine is dependent upon circumstantial evidence, summary judgment is rarely appropriate even where plaintiff’s evidence is unrefuted.

 

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