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Failure to Submit Expert Affidavit In Support of Meterological Data Precluded Summary Judgment Based Upon Defendant City’s Assertion It Did Not Have Sufficient Time to Remove Snow and Ice from a Sidewalk

The First Department, over a dissent, determined summary judgment should not have been granted to the defendant city in a slip and fall case.  The city argued that it did not have sufficient time to address the snow and ice on the sidewalk, and submitted meterological data without an expert affidavit.  The First Department determined the absence of an expert affidavit precluded summary judgment:

“Summary judgment in a snow or ice case is proper where a defendant demonstrates, through climatological data and expert opinion, that the weather conditions would preclude the existence of snow or ice at the time of the accident” … . Accordingly, because it failed to offer an expert opinion, in addition to the meteorological records, the City’s motion should have been denied without regard to the sufficiency of plaintiff’s papers in opposition … . While, as the dissent notes, no expert affidavit was required by this Court in Daley v Janel Tower L.P. (89 AD3d 408 [1st Dept 2011]), it is worth noting that there it was hardly needed.  it is worth noting that there it was hardly needed. That is because in Daley “the climatological reports showed that it last snowed more than one week prior to plaintiff’s fall and that during the three-day period prior to plaintiff’s fall, temperatures remained well above freezing” (89 AD3d at 409). Here, by contrast, the climatological reports showed that, except for a few hours of above-freezing temperatures and non-freezing rain, temperatures generally remained below freezing for the entire period between the December 19 storm and the accident four days later. Plaintiff’s expert opined that these conditions were suitable for the ice that formed as a result of the initial storm to remain, but not for the formation of new ice, which the City would have had insufficient time to clear. Without an expert to interpret the meteorological record in a way that would disprove this theory, the City failed to establish a right to judgment as a matter of law. Rodriguez v Woods, 2014 NY Slip Op 06887, 1st Dept 10-14-14

 

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