Opinion
Submitted June 7, 2000
September 25, 2000.
In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, etc., the plaintiffs appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Alpert, J.), dated October 1, 1999, which granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint.
Samuel E. Rieff, Garden City, N.Y., for appellants.
Frank V. Merlino, Garden City, N.Y. (David Holmes of counsel), for respondents.
Before: CORNELIUS J. O'BRIEN, J.P., MYRIAM J. ALTMAN, WILLIAM D. FRIEDMANN, LEO F. McGINITY, NANCY E. SMITH, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the order is affirmed, with costs.
A property owner is under no duty to pedestrians to remove ice and snow that naturally accumulate upon the sidewalk in front of his or her premises (see, Lakhan v. Singh, 269 A.D.2d 427; Delgado v. City of New York, 245 A.D.2d 540; Stewart v. Yeshiva Nachlas Haleviym, 186 A.D.2d 731) unless a statute specifically imposes tort liability for failing to clear the sidewalk (see, Booth v. City of New York, A.D.2d [2d Dept., May 8, 2000]; Norcott v. Central Iron Metal Scraps, 214 A.D.2d 660). Here, in the absence of any such statute, a failure to remove all of the snow is not negligence (see, Spicehandler v. City of New York, 303 N.Y. 946), and liability will not result unless it is shown that the property owner made the sidewalk more hazardous (see, Lakhan v. Singh, supra; Tosov v. C B Ventures Corp., 261 A.D.2d 535; Verdino v. Alexandrou, 253 A.D.2d 553; Reidy v. EZE Equip. Co., 234 A.D.2d 593; Oley v. Village of Massapequa Park, 198 A.D.2d 272).
After the defendants made out a prima facie case for summary judgment, the plaintiffs failed to proffer any evidence sufficient to raise a triable issue of fact that the defendants' efforts to clear the sidewalk of snow and ice rendered the condition of the sidewalk more hazardous.