Opinion
03-10-2016
Kathleen PFLESHINGER, Plaintiff–Respondent, v. METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY, et al., Defendants–Appellants.
Lawrence Heisler, Brooklyn (Timothy J. O'Shaughnessy of counsel), for appellants. O'Dwyer & Bernstien, LLP, New York (Mary Gladys T. Oranga of counsel), for respondent.
Lawrence Heisler, Brooklyn (Timothy J. O'Shaughnessy of counsel), for appellants.
O'Dwyer & Bernstien, LLP, New York (Mary Gladys T. Oranga of counsel), for respondent.
Opinion
Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Barry Salman, J.), entered on or about April 8, 2015, which denied defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and the motion granted. The Clerk is directed to enter judgment accordingly.
Defendants established entitlement to judgment as a matter of law, in this action where plaintiff alleges that she was injured when, while standing and riding on defendants' bus, the bus stopped suddenly causing her to fall and strike her head. Defendants submitted evidence showing that the bus was traveling between five and seven miles per hour, that it was not operated in a negligent manner, and that no other passengers who were standing fell when the bus stopped.
In opposition, plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact. Other than alleging that the bus “stopped short,” plaintiff failed to provide “objective evidence of the force of the stop sufficient to establish an inference that the stop was extraordinary and violent, of a different class than the jerks and jolts commonly experienced in city bus travel and, therefore, attributable to the negligence of defendant” (Urquhart v. New York City Tr. Auth., 85 N.Y.2d 828, 830, 623 N.Y.S.2d 838, 647 N.E.2d 1346 [1995]; see Tallant v. Grey Line N.Y. Tours, Inc., 67 A.D.3d 497, 889 N.Y.S.2d 562 [1st Dept.2009]; Gioulis v. MTA Bus Co., 94 A.D.3d 811, 941 N.Y.S.2d 689 [2d Dept.2012] ).