Opinion
1229/2014
02-03-2017
Judy Zhou, et al., Plaintiff, v. Tuxedo Ridge, LLC, et al., Defendants.
Papers Numbered Motion Papers 1-18 Opposition 19-59 Reply 60-62 SALVATORE J. MODICA, J.:
The defendant moves for summary judgment in this case where the plaintiff, a nine-year-old child, making her maiden ski trip was injured.
The defendant makes several arguments in support of summary judgment including that the mother of the plaintiff should have supervised her daughter more closely and assumption of risk. Almost ninety years ago, Chief Judge Cardozo stated: "The plaintiff was not seeking a retreat for meditation. Visitors were tumbling about the belt to the merriment of onlookers when he made his choice to join them. He took the chance of a like fate, with whatever damage to his body might ensue from such a fall. The timorous may stay at home." Murphy v. Steeplechase Amusement Co., 250 NY 479, 483 (1929) (one stepping on moving belt of amusement device accepts obvious and necessary dangers).
The law has moved from assumption of risk to comparative negligence. As plaintiff's counsel, Souren A. Israelyan, Esq., cogently and aptly states in his affirmation in opposition to the defense motion, the defendants cut a portion of the Bunny Hill slope by installing white PVC plumbing pipes to create a corral line leading to the chairlift. The PVC pipes were as hard as metal plumbing pipes and, at the same time, blended into the slope's white snow and were not clearly visible to a skier in motion, let alone a novice skier such as the plaintiff infant. These obstructions blocked a portion of the snowy slope and were in the path of a skier's descent. Although the defendants maintained nylon netting at the site, it did not place a fence or netting on the slope above the area to prevent and catch children and novice skiers from coming into contact with the corral line's PVC posts.
Under the foregoing facts, the provident course is to deny the defendants' motion for summary judgment. See, De Lacy v. Catamount Dev. Corp., 302 AD2d 735 (3rd Dept. 2003) (genuine issue of material facts existed as to whether seven-year-old novice skier with limited skiing ability was properly instructed regarding use of chairlift, whether owner/operator of ski facility violated its own policies, and whether chairlift's design was faulty, precluding summary judgment for owner/operator in negligence action brought by mother and her daughter, seeking to recover damages for injury daughter sustained when she fell from chairlift); accord, Finn v. Barbone, 83 AD3d 1365 (3rd Dept. 2011) (fact issues precluded summary judgment on issue of skier's assumption of the risk).
This Court, therefore, denies the motion for summary judgment in its entirety.
The parties are required to appear in the Trial Scheduling Part on February 15, 2017, for trial.
The foregoing constitutes the decision, order, and opinion of the Court. Dated: Jamaica, New York February 3, 2017 Honorable Salvatore J. Modica J.S.C.