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Plaintiff Did Not Know Cause of Fall

The Second Department determined summary judgment was properly granted to defendant in a slip and fall case. Plaintiff apparently tripped on a rug. After the fall plaintiff noticed a part of the rug which was bent upwards. However there was no evidence thr rug was in that condition before the fall, forcing resort to speculation about the cause of the fall:

“In a slip [or trip] and fall case, a defendant moving for summary judgment has the initial burden of establishing, prima facie, that it neither created the dangerous condition nor had actual or constructive notice of its existence for a sufficient length of time to discover and remedy it” … . However, “[a] plaintiff’s inability to identify what had caused him or her to fall is fatal to his or her case, and a defendant moving for summary judgment dismissing the complaint can meet its initial burden as the movant simply by demonstrating that the plaintiff did not know what had caused him or her to fall” … .

Here, the defendant established its prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law by submitting the transcript of the plaintiff’s deposition, during which she testified that she did not notice the subject rug at any time prior to her fall, and that it was only after she fell that she observed a part of the rug to be in a folded condition … . The defendant also submitted the deposition testimony and an affidavit from the employee the plaintiff was following when she fell. The employee stated that she did not see any condition with respect to the subject rug which would cause anyone to trip. The defendant also submitted surveillance footage from the day of the plaintiff’s fall depicting the rug, which does not show that the rug was in a defective condition prior to the plaintiff falling. Without proof that there was a defective condition present with respect to the subject rug when the plaintiff fell, and the possibility that the folded condition of the rug the plaintiff observed after she fell was caused by her tripping, a jury would be required to impermissibly speculate as to the cause of her fall… . Giannotti v Hudson Val. Fed. Credit Union, 2015 NY Slip Op 08383, 2nd Dept 11-18-15

 

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