Skerrett v. LIC Site B2 Owner, LLC

2021 NY Slip Op 06386

Richard Skerrett, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. LIC Site B2 Owner, LLC, et al., Defendants Third-Party Plaintiffs-Respondents;

ABM Janitorial Services Northeast, Inc., Third-Party Defendant-appellant.

No. 2019-05365

Index No. 710014/15

Supreme Court of New York, Second Department

November 17, 2021

Argued - April 8, 2021

D66572 Y/htr

Taubman, Kimelman & Soroka, LLP, New York, NY (Antonette M. Milcetic of counsel), for plaintiff-appellant.

McGiff Halverson Dooley LLP, Patchogue, NY (Stephen J. McGiff of counsel), for third-party defendant-appellant.

Cozen O'Connor, New York, NY (Amanda L. Nelson and Vincent P Pozzuto of counsel), for defendants third-party plaintiffs-respondents.

HECTOR D. LASALLE, P.J., MARK C. DILLON, ROBERT J. MILLER, FRANCESCA E. CONNOLLY, JJ.

DECISION & ORDER

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the plaintiff appeals, and the third-party defendant separately appeals, from an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Maureen A. Healy, J.), dated March 20, 2019. The order insofar as appealed from by the plaintiff, granted that branch of the motion of the defendants third-party plaintiffs which was for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, and denied, as academic, the plaintiff's cross motion for leave to amend his bill of particulars. The order, insofar as appealed from by the third-party defendant, granted that branch of the motion of the defendants third-party plaintiffs which was for summary judgment on the third-party cause of action for contractual indemnification.

ORDERED that the order is reversed insofar as appealed from by the plaintiff, on the law and in the exercise of discretion, that branch of the motion of the defendants third-party plaintiffs which was for summary judgment dismissing the complaint is denied, and the plaintiff's cross motion for leave to amend his bill of particulars is denied on the merits; and it is further, ORDERED that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from by the third-party defendant; and it is further, ORDERED that one bill of costs is awarded to the defendant third-party plaintiff, payable by the third-party defendant.

The plaintiff commenced this action to recover damages for injuries he allegedly sustained when he slipped and fell on a wet loading dock platform at a building owned and managed by the defendants. At the time of the accident, the plaintiff, a UPS driver, was in the process of making a delivery to the premises. The plaintiff alleged that the accident occurred "as a result of the negligence, carelessness and recklessness of the defendants, their agents, servants and/or employees, in the ownership, maintenance, management, control, inspection, cleaning, repair and operation of the . . . premises." The defendants answered the complaint and commenced a third-party action for, inter alia, contractual and common-law indemnification against ABM Janitorial Services Northeast, Inc. (hereinafter ABM), a contractor responsible, inter alia, for cleaning the building, including the loading dock area. ABM's agreement required it to "keep [the] loading dock clean and free of hazards" and required ABM's porters to, among other things, "[p]olice . . . the loading dock area[ ]." In the agreement, ABM agreed to indemnify the defendants, to the fullest extent permitted by law, "from and against all liability, claims, damages, losses and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable legal fees and court costs, arising out of or alleged to arise out of the negligence or willful misconduct of [ABM], its agents and/or employees or a breach of any of the terms of this Agreement by [ABM]."

The defendants moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint and on their third-party causes of action sounding in contractual and common-law indemnification. The plaintiff cross-moved for leave to amend his bill of particulars to add a claim that the defendants had actual notice of a recurring condition that trucks entering the loading dock would bring in precipitation that would accumulate on the dock. In an order dated March 20, 2019, the Supreme Court granted those branches of the defendants' motion which were for summary judgment dismissing the complaint and on their contractual indemnification cause of action against ABM. The court denied, as academic, the plaintiff's cross motion for leave to amend his bill of particulars. The plaintiff and ABM separately appeal.

The Supreme Court should have denied that branch of the defendants' motion which was for summary judgment dismissing the complaint. "In a premises liability case, a defendant real property owner or a party in possession or control of real property that moves for summary judgment has the initial burden of making a prima facie showing that it neither created the allegedly dangerous or defective condition nor had actual or constructive notice of its existence" (Williams v. Island Trees Union Free Sch. Dist., 177 A.D.3d 936, 937). "A defendant has constructive notice of a dangerous condition when the condition is visible and apparent, and has existed for a sufficient length of time to afford the defendant a reasonable opportunity to discover and remedy it" (Fortune v. W. Beef, Inc., 178 A.D.3d 671, 672; see Gordon v. American Museum of Natural History, 67 N.Y.2d 836, 837-838). "To meet its initial burden on the issue of lack of constructive notice, the defendant must offer evidence as to when the area in question was last cleaned or inspected relative to the time when the plaintiff fell" (Williams v. Island Trees Union Free Sch. Dist., 177 A.D.3d at 938; see Radosta v. Schechter, 171 A.D.3d 1112, 1113). "Mere reference to general cleaning practices, with no evidence regarding any specific cleaning or inspection of the area in question, is insufficient to establish a lack of constructive notice" (Williams v. Island Trees Union Free Sch. Dist., 177 A.D.3d at 938 [internal quotation marks omitted]; see Griffin v. PMV Realty, LLC, 181 A.D.3d 912, 913).

The defendants failed to establish, prima facie, that they did not have constructive notice of the allegedly dangerous condition in that they failed to offer evidence as to when the loading dock was last cleaned or inspected before the plaintiff's fall. A security guard hired by the defendants testified that, while he would typically perform a "security walk around" twice every 30 to 60 minutes, on the day of the accident, he did not pay attention to the area where the plaintiff later fell. Further, the testimony of witnesses employed by the defendants and ABM as to general cleaning and inspection procedures for the loading dock area was insufficient to establish lack of constructive notice (see Steele v. Samaritan Found., Inc., 176 A.D.3d 998, 999-1000; Quinones v. Starret City, Inc., 163 A.D.3d 1020, 1022; Lombardo v. Kimco Cent. Islip Venture, LLC, 153 A.D.3d 1340, 1341). Accordingly, that branch of the defendants' motion which was for summary judgment dismissing the complaint should have been denied, without regard to the sufficiency of the plaintiff's opposition papers (see Winegrad v. New York Univ. Med. Ctr., 64 N.Y.2d 851, 853).

However the defendants established their entitlement to judgment as a matter of law on their third-party cause of action for contractual indemnification. "The right to contractual indemnification depends upon the specific language of the...