TOWN DID NOT HAVE WRITTEN NOTICE OF A RUSTY DRAINAGE PIPE IN THE WATER AT A TOWN BEACH AND WAS THEREFORE NOT LIABLE FOR THE INJURY TO THE INFANT PLAINTIFF WHO CUT HIS FOOT ON THE PIPE WHEN WALKING IN THE WATER (SECOND DEPT).
The Second Department determined a rusty drainage pipe under the water at a town beach was a culvert within the meaning of the town code, requiring written notice of the condition before the town could be held liable for an injury, Infant plaintiff cut his foot on the pipe when he was walking in the water:
… [T]he Town demonstrated by the submission of the affidavit of its expert engineer, that the drainage pipe at issue is a culvert and, thus, falls within the ambit of the statute. In opposition, the plaintiffs failed to raise a triable issue of fact as to the nature of the subject drainage pipe.
“A municipality that has adopted a prior written notice law cannot be held liable for a defect within the scope of the law absent the requisite written notice, unless an exception to the requirement applies” … . “The only two recognized exceptions to a prior written notice requirement are the municipality's affirmative creation of a defect or where the defect is created by the municipality's special use of the property” … .
Insofar as is relevant here, the Town established its prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law by demonstrating that it did not have prior written notice of the alleged defect through the submission of, inter alia, the affidavit of an employee of the Town's Department of Highways, who averred that his search of the Town's records revealed no prior written notice of any hazardous condition of the culvert where the accident occurred … . Coventry v Town of Huntington, 2018 NY Slip Op 06715, Second Dept 10-10-18
NEGLIGENCE (TOWN DID NOT HAVE WRITTEN NOTICE OF A RUSTY DRAINAGE PIPE IN THE WATER AT A TOWN BEACH AND WAS THEREFORE NOT LIABLE FOR THE INJURY TO THE INFANT PLAINTIFF WHO CUT HIS FOOT ON THE PIPE WHEN WALKING IN THE WATER (SECOND DEPT))/MUNICIPAL LAW (NEGLIGENCE, WRITTEN NOTICE, TOWN DID NOT HAVE WRITTEN NOTICE OF A RUSTY DRAINAGE PIPE IN THE WATER AT A TOWN BEACH AND WAS THEREFORE NOT LIABLE FOR THE INJURY TO THE INFANT PLAINTIFF WHO CUT HIS FOOT ON THE PIPE WHEN WALKING IN THE WATER (SECOND DEPT))
