Personal Injury

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In Sikora v Earth Leasing Prop. Ltd. Liab. Co., 2015 NY Slip Op 07918 (App. Div. 1st Dept. Oct. 29, 2015) – a personal injury ice slip/fall case – the Appellate Division, First Department affirmed a lower court decision denying defendant’s motion for summary judgment. The court explained: Defendant failed to establish entitlement to judgment as a matter of law…

Read More Plaintiff Survives Summary Judgment in Ice Slip/Fall Personal Injury Case
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Here is the complaint, captioned Ekberg v. City of New York (NY Sup. Ct., NY Cty., Index # 158642/2015, filed 8/20/15) in which plaintiff alleges that she was injured after being bitten by a NYPD horse while on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. (I’m very curious to know why, in 2015, large animals with teeth are present in…

Read More Lawsuit: Bitten by Police Horse
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Dog-bite injuries can be serious and in some cases deadly. If it happens to you, can you (successfully) sue under New York law for damages? It depends. Unlike in other types of personal injury cases, a person injured by a domestic animal (e.g., a dog) may not proceed on a theory of negligence. Rather, under…

Read More Who’s a Bad Boy? “Vicious Propensities” and New York Dog Bite Law
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In Spearin v. Linmar, L.P., 129 AD3d 528 (App. Div. 1st Dept. June 16, 2015), a personal injury case, the court addressed an issue that is coming up with increasing frequency: namely, the extent to which a plaintiff’s social media postings must be turned over in discovery. The court reversed a lower court decision that “ordered…

Read More Piano-Playing Plaintiff’s Facebook Posts Ordered for In-Camera Inspection
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Under New York’s “No Fault” automobile insurance system, first-party no-fault insurance benefits are not available to “occupants” of a motorcycle. But what exactly does it mean to be a motorcycle “occupant”? Consider, for example, the following accident scenario: a motorcycle passenger is ejected from her motorcycle, the motorcycle becomes airborne, and then lands on the…

Read More Ejected Motorcycle Passenger Was “Occupying” the Bike and Hence Not Entitled to First-Party Benefits Under New York’s No-Fault System
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In Connolly v. 129 East 69th St. Corp., a personal injury trip-and-fall case, one defendant moved for summary judgment to dismiss plaintiff’s case. The Supreme Court granted the motion. The Appellate Division, however, reversed that decision, finding that the defendant filed its motion one day after the motion filing deadline: Supreme Court’s individual part rules…

Read More Summary Judgment Motion Filed One Day Late Deemed Untimely in Personal Injury Case
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In Lake v. Holzer (Sup. NY Feb. 9, 2015), a personal injury car accident pedestrian knockdown case, the court held that the “emergency doctrine” was inapplicable and granted plaintiff’s cross-motion for summary judgment. Here are the facts: [P]laintiff Collin Lake, a pedestrian, was standing on the raised median island which separates the north and southbound lanes…

Read More Median Jump to Avoid Fender-Bender Unreasonable; Emergency Doctrine Inapplicable; Pedestrian Awarded Summary Judgment on Liability in Car Accident Case
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In DiGiacomo v. Town of Babylon (App. Div. 2nd Dept. Jan. 28, 2015), the Appellate Division, Second Department affirmed the denial of defendant’s motion for summary judgment. Here are the facts of this personal injury case, the six-year old plaintiff was injured when she fell from a “monkey bar”. According to her testimony: [P]rior to her accident,…

Read More “Monkey Bar” Playground Injury Case Continues
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