Opinion
2002-00536
Submitted January 23, 2003.
February 18, 2003.
In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the plaintiff appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Flug, J.), dated November 26, 2001, which granted the defendant's motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint.
Riconda Garnett, LLP, Valley Stream, N.Y. (John Riconda of counsel), for appellant.
Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel, New York, N.Y. (Leonard Koerner and Ellen B. Fishman of counsel), for respondent.
Before: NANCY E. SMITH, J.P., GLORIA GOLDSTEIN, STEPHEN G. CRANE, REINALDO E. RIVERA, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the order is affirmed, with costs.
The plaintiff, then a sixth-grade student, was injured when a fellow student allegedly intentionally tripped him during a graduation ceremony rehearsal.
The defendant sustained its burden of establishing that it had no actual or constructive notice of prior, similar misconduct (see Mirand v. City of New York, 84 N.Y.2d 44). Even assuming, as the plaintiff contends, that the fellow student had prior disciplinary problems that were reported to school officials, the disciplinary problems were not of a nature to place the defendant on notice of the instant situation (see Morman v. Ossining Union Free School Dist., 297 A.D.2d 788, 789; Janukajtis v. Fallon, 284 A.D.2d 428, 430). In addition, there is no evidence to establish that any purported negligence on the defendant's part was the proximate cause of the injuries. According to the plaintiff's testimony, the fellow student, who was standing behind him in line, tripped him by stepping on his heel. Under the circumstances, the incident happened in "so short a span of time that `even the most intense supervision could not have prevented it'" (Janukajtis v. Fallon, supra at 430, quoting Convey v. City of Rye School Dist., 271 A.D.2d 154, 160; see O'Neal v. Archdioceses of N.Y., 286 A.D.2d 757).
SMITH, J.P., GOLDSTEIN, CRANE and RIVERA, JJ., concur.