Dell And Graham Score Summary Judgment In Storefront Trip-And-Fall Case

Greg Dell (Partner-New York, NY) and Omar Graham (Associate-New York, NY) secured a summary judgment in a trip-and-fall case on behalf of a national communications client. The plaintiff alleged personal injuries as a result of tripping and falling due to a defect in the curbstone in front of a store our client did not own or operate, but was in fact owned by one co-defendant and leased and operated by another co-defendant, an authorized retailer of our client's products and services. Plaintiff's counsel inexplicably refused to discontinue after delaying his response for over a year, and instead preferred to force motion practice. Greg and Omar were able to show based on the definitions in the New York Administrative Code that a curb is actually considered part of the roadway, not the sidewalk, arguing on summary judgment that we had no legal connection to the defect or the property. At oral argument, plaintiff's counsel argued that our motion should be denied to explore whether the defect could have been created by a client entity considering the presence of the store, but we were able to quickly establish that the defect actually predated the presence of the store and thus clearly there was no connection at all. Justice Patria Frias-Colon, New York State Supreme Court in Kings County, agreed with our arguments, and conversely found all of plaintiff's arguments on opposition to be without merit. The motion was prepared and argued by Omar.