LENDING A KNIFE TO AN ACQUAINTANCE, WITHOUT INQUIRING AS TO ITS USE, DID NOT CREATE A DUTY OWED TO THE PERSON STABBED BY THE ACQUAINTANCE (SECOND DEPT). ​

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the action against defendant store owners (F & S LLC) who gave defendant a knife which defendant used to stab the plaintiff should have been dismissed. The store owners did not owe a duty to plaintiff:

The plaintiff allegedly sustained personal injuries when the defendant William Volkes stabbed him with a knife. The incident allegedly occurred after the plaintiff attempted to retrieve his girlfriend’s cell phone from Volkes, with whom the plaintiff’s girlfriend was acquainted. After the plaintiff recovered the cell phone from Volkes, Volkes allegedly fled approximately one block to the defendant Frank and Sal, LLC (hereinafter F & S), a grocery market where he was a regular customer.

Once inside F & S, Volkes approached the deli section and allegedly asked an employee, who recognized Volkes, for a knife. Without inquiring into the purpose of Volkes’s request, but knowing him as a regular customer, the employee allegedly provided Volkes with a boning knife kept behind the deli counter. Volkes then allegedly exited F & S with the knife, returned to the plaintiff, and stabbed him. * * *

F & S established, prima facie, that it did not owe a duty to the plaintiff. F & S’s submissions established that it did not have sufficient authority and ability to control Volkes after he exited the premises and that it did not have a special relationship with the plaintiff … . In opposition, the plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact. Accordingly, the Supreme Court should have granted F & S’s motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against it … . Torres v Frank & Sal, LLC, 2026 NY Slip Op 05340, Second Dept 9-16-26

Practice Point: Consult this decision for a rare discussion of a “duty” in the context of a negligence action. Here the defendants who gave an acquaintance a knife without inquiring as to its use did not owe a duty to the person stabbed by the acquaintance.​