No Notice, No Liability: NY Court Dismisses Staircase Slip-and-Fall Claim
NY Slip Op 00042
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Nancy M. Bannon, J.), entered January 6, 2016, which granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
Defendants established entitlement to judgment as a matter of law, in this action for personal injuries arising out of plaintiff’s fall on an exterior stairway attached to defendants’ building. The stairway was an appurtenance of the building, and thus defendants had a nondelegable duty to maintain it in a reasonably safe condition (see Basso v Miller, 40 NY2d 233, 241 [1976]). However, plaintiff failed to raise an issue of fact as to whether defendants had actual or constructive notice of the hazardous condition that caused her fall.
Plaintiff testified that she fell due to snow and ice on the stairs. She did not know how long the snow and ice had been there, and there was no evidence that defendants created the condition or had actual notice of it. The record shows that defendants shoveled the stairs several times on the day of the incident and salted them as needed. Absent evidence of notice, defendants cannot be liable (see Perez v Bronx Park S. Assoc., 87 AD3d 610, 611 [1st Dept 2011]).
