Opinion
12426 Index No. 27283/17E Case No. 2020-02348
11-19-2020
Corretta BROWN, Plaintiff–Respondent, v. Audrey PHILLBERT et al., Defendants–Appellants.
Lester Schwab Katz & Dwyer, LLP, New York (Jeffrey B. Aronwald of counsel), for appellants. Sanders, Sanders, Block, Woycik, Viener & Grossman, P.C., Mineola (Martin Block of counsel), for respondents.
Lester Schwab Katz & Dwyer, LLP, New York (Jeffrey B. Aronwald of counsel), for appellants.
Sanders, Sanders, Block, Woycik, Viener & Grossman, P.C., Mineola (Martin Block of counsel), for respondents.
Gische, J.P., Mazzarelli, Moulton, Mendez, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Fernando Tapia, J.), entered on or about May 1, 2020, which denied defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
Defendants failed to establish prima facie that they neither created nor had actual or constructive notice of the water condition alleged to have caused plaintiff's fall in the vestibule of their building (see Pfeuffer v. New York City Hous. Auth., 93 A.D.3d 470, 940 N.Y.S.2d 566 [1st Dept. 2012] ). It is undisputed that it rained on the day of plaintiff's accident, and that a rain mat usually placed next to the building's front door had been removed for cleaning by the superintendent and not replaced with another available mat. There is some evidence that the mat's absence allowed water to accumulate in the vestibule and on the marble steps leading to the vestibule as people entered from outside. Plaintiff asserts that this accumulation of water on the steps, which lacked any anti-skid strips, was the cause of her fall. The surveillance video relied upon by defendants does not show conclusively that the condition was created by another tenant of the building collapsing her umbrella in the vestibule just moments before plaintiff's accident. Nor is there any evidence as to when the vestibule floor was last checked before plaintiff's accident.