Opinion
March 11, 1994
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Erie County, Mintz, J.
Present — Balio, J.P., Lawton, Doerr, Davis and Boehm, JJ.
Order unanimously affirmed with costs. Memorandum: Plaintiff Patricia I. Reid alleges that she sustained injuries when she slipped on an icy public sidewalk at a point where it crossed defendant's driveway. Abutting landowners or users are not liable for the condition of the public sidewalk unless the abutting landowners or users use the sidewalk for a special purpose that results in plaintiff's injury (see, D'Ambrosio v. City of New York, 55 N.Y.2d 454, 462; Kormanyos v. Champlain Val. Fed. Sav. Loan Assn., 182 A.D.2d 1036, 1038; Schiavone v. Palumbo, 177 A.D.2d 1045, 1046; Little v. City of Albany, 169 A.D.2d 1013). Defendant submitted evidence that the public sidewalk, as it crossed defendant's driveway, was not constructed in any special manner for defendant's benefit, nor was the injury caused by any special use to which defendant put the sidewalk. Plaintiffs, on the other hand, failed to submit evidence to raise an issue of fact requiring a trial. Plaintiffs' reliance on our decision in Deans v. City of Buffalo ( 181 A.D.2d 1015) is misplaced. In Deans (supra), defendant's motion for summary judgment was denied because plaintiff submitted evidence that defendant had blacktopped his driveway over the public sidewalk, creating a difference in elevation between the blacktop and the concrete public sidewalk that allegedly caused plaintiff's injury (see also, Azzara v. Revellese, 146 A.D.2d 592, lv denied 75 N.Y.2d 701). No such evidence was submitted here.