Personal Injury

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A trial court recently denied the motions by Bob’s Discount Furniture and Costco Wholesale Corporation to dismiss claims arising from Marion Hedges being struck by a shopping cart dropped from the fourth floor of the East River Plaza shopping complex (pictured). The complaint in Hedges v. East River Plaza LLC is here, my earlier post on…

Read More Marion Hedges’ Lawsuit Arising From Dropped Shopping Cart Survives Summary Judgment
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In Gautier v. 941 Intervale Realty LLC, 2013 NY Slip Op 05432, 108 AD3d 481 (July 23, 2013), a stairway slip-and-fall case, the court affirmed the denial of summary judgment to defendant. Defendant moved for summary judgment on the ground that it neither created nor had actual or constructive notice of the hazard.  In support, it cited…

Read More Summary Judgment Properly Denied to Defendant in Slip/Fall Case; No Evidence That Janitorial Schedule Was Followed on Day of Incident
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Last week in Taveras v. City of New York the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department permitted a drowning death lawsuit to continue. In June 2005, Luis Alberto Peralta (a.k.a. Luis A. Peralta Taveras) drowned while swimming at the public ocean beach at Coney Island in Brooklyn. (New York Post story here). The administrators of…

Read More Drowning Death Lawsuit Proceeds
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The Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department recently held, in Hutchings v. Yuter, 2013 NY Slip Op 04988 (July 2, 2013), that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur was appropriately invoked.  There, plaintiff alleged that “a garage door suddenly fell and struck him on the head”, causing injury. “Res ipsa loquitur” is Latin for “the thing itself…

Read More Res Ipsa Loquitur Does Not Require “Sole Physical Access” to the Injury-Causing Instrumentality
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Yes, you read that right. The Court of Appeals recently indicated, in Hastings v. Sauve, an intention to chip away at the “vicious propensity” rule that has traditionally been applied to lawsuits arising from animal-related injuries. While driving on Route 53 in the Town of Bangor in Franklin County, Karen Hastings hit a cow with her…

Read More NY Court of Appeals: Plaintiffs May Proceed On Negligence Theory To Seek Damages For Injuries Caused By Wandering Livestock
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Yesterday the Appellate Division, First Department found, in Grinberg v. C & L Contracting Corp, that awards of $75,000 and $35,000 for past and future pain and suffering, respectively, were “inadequate” to compensate the plaintiff for injuries sustained in a fall.  It therefore remanded for a new trial on damages unless defendant stipulated to an increase…

Read More Damages Increased From $110,000 to $950,000 in Slip/Fall Case
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While “running and playing” with other dogs, defendants’ 50-pound Labrador Retriever, Delilah, knocked plaintiff down from behind, causing serious injuries. The Appellate Division, Third Department last week in Bloom v. Van Lenten dismissed plaintiff’s lawsuit. The lower court allowed plaintiff’s strict liability claim to survive, finding questions of fact as to whether Delilah had “vicious propensities of…

Read More Playful Dog Exhibited “Normal Canine Behavior”, Not “Vicious Propensities”
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Gilchrist v. City of New York, decided on March 7, 2013, contains an important lesson for plaintiffs’ lawyers in personal injury cases:  wherever possible, make sure to specifically request that certain pieces of evidence be preserved.  Here, the defendants’ failure to preserve such specifically requested evidence resulted in sanctions for spoliation of evidence. In this…

Read More Defendants’ Spoliation of Evidence Results in Adverse Inference Charge and Denial of Summary Judgment Motion
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