Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York; May 21, 2014; New York; State Appellate Court
In a personal injury case, the plaintiff appeals an order from the Supreme Court of Queens County that granted the defendant, Sclafmore Construction, LLC, a renewed motion for summary judgment, dismissing her complaint. The plaintiff claims she slipped on ice in a parking lot owned by her employer, Communicar, while Sclafmore had a snow removal contract with Communicar.
Initially, in January 2012, the defendant sought summary judgment, but the motion was withdrawn to allow for discovery. The renewed motion was subsequently granted by the court. The Court of Appeals outlines three scenarios where a contracting party may assume a duty of care to third parties: 1) when failing to exercise reasonable care in their duties creates a risk of harm, 2) when a party relies detrimentally on the continuous performance of the contract, and 3) when the contracting party completely takes over another's duty to maintain safe premises.
The court found that the defendant established a prima facie case for summary judgment by showing that the plaintiff was not a party to the snow removal contract, thus it owed her no duty of care. The plaintiff failed to provide any facts in her complaint or bill of particulars that would invoke any of the exceptions to the general rule. Furthermore, she did not raise a triable issue of fact concerning the applicability of the Espinal exceptions, offering only speculation regarding the defendant's liability for the ice patch that caused her fall.
Consequently, the Supreme Court's decision to grant summary judgment in favor of the defendant was deemed appropriate, affirming the dismissal of the plaintiff's complaint. The order is affirmed, with costs. Eng, EJ., Skelos, Dillon, and Duffy, JJ. concur.
