In October 2012, the Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department, affirmed an order granting summary judgment to the New York City Transit Authority in a matter involving a slip and fall at a subway station. In the case, Kinberg v. NYCTA, the plaintiff brought a lawsuit after she fell during a snow storm on an icy staircase leading away from the subway.
The NYCTA moved for summary judgment after presenting evidence that at the time that the plaintiff fell, a storm was in progress. The Court ruled, based on precedent in Solazzo v. NYCTA, that a landowner’s duty to rectify an unsafe condition does not take effect until a reasonable time after the storm has ended.
In the current case, the Transit Authority presented evidence that the snowstorm was in progress at the time of the plaintiff’s fall. Although the plaintiff claimed otherwise, her only basis for this opposing contention was her own testimony. She presented no objective evidence that the storm had subsided. Accordingly, the duty of the Transit Authority to remedy the condition had not been triggered, and the Court affirmed the lower Court’s dismissal of the case.
For the Court’s decision, go here to the New York State Law Reporting Bureau.