Pre-Depositions Summary Judgment Granted in Premises Liability Action in New York County

Another victory for team RPGRK and, in particular, Partner Juan Gonzalez and Associate Hara Prager, for prevailing on a summary judgment motion in an action in which plaintiff allegedly sustained serious personal injuries as a result of an alleged trip and fall on defects on the sidewalk abutting a large condominium complex in Manhattan. The complex comprised various commercial spaces and a separately owned co-operative comprising over 100 individual residential units. Plaintiff sued the City of New York and our client, the owner of the residential unit. A prolonged, unsuccessful effort ensued at obtaining a cost-effective voluntary discontinuance on the strength of settled law imposing no duty upon a unit owner of a condominium complex to ensure an abutting sidewalk is maintained or repaired, and repeated evidentiary proffers that our client did not otherwise create the alleged condition or make special use of the sidewalk to assume a duty to the public. Ultimately, our client was forced to seek court intervention and move for summary judgment, even before depositions took place. Hara procured a detailed affidavit from the client and thoroughly articulated all possible nuances and aspects of the applicable law, demonstrating that for purposes of Administrative Law § 7-210 (New York’s so-called “Sidewalk Law”), settled law established that a mere unit owner in a residential complex is not an “owner” for purposes of the duty to maintain and repair an abutting sidewalk as construed under the Sidewalk Law. Hara’s motion also demonstrated, conclusively through affidavits and governing documents that the co-op owner neither created the alleged condition nor made special use of the sidewalk in question. Hara’s focused efforts on behalf of our client paid off, resulting in a significant victory in extricating our client from exposure and sparing it from being deposed. Terrific result, Hara!