Dewsnap-Deitch v. Brooklyn Union Gas Co.
Opinion
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Bureau Thomas J.K. Smith, State Reporter
Dewsnap-Deitch v Brooklyn Union Gas Co.
2026 NY Slip Op 04489
July 22, 2026
Appellate Division, Second Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
This decision is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.
Terence Dewsnap-Deitch, appellant,
v
Brooklyn Union Gas Company, et al., respondents.
Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department
Decided on July 22, 2026
2024-13227, (Index No. 525450/22)
Betsy Barros, J.P.
Helen Voutsinas
Donna-Marie E. Golia
Phillip Hom, JJ.
Sullivan Papain Block McManus Coffinas & Cannavo, P.C., New York, NY (Stephen C. Glasser and Christopher J. DelliCarpini of counsel), for appellant.
Hammill Croutier Pender Koehler Lawless & Moulton, P.C., Garden City, NY (Patricia A. Donohoe of counsel), for respondents.
DECISION & ORDER
In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the plaintiff appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Kerry J. Ward, J.), dated November 4, 2024. The order denied the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability.
ORDERED that the order is affirmed, with costs.
The plaintiff allegedly was injured while walking across a street within a crosswalk when he slipped and fell on a steel roadway plate placed by the defendants. The plaintiff commenced this action against the defendants to recover damages for personal injuries that he sustained as a result of the accident. The plaintiff moved for summary judgment on the issue of liability, contending that the defendants created a hazardous condition by placing a steel roadway plate without a skid-resistant surface on the roadway. In an order dated November 4, 2024, the Supreme Court denied the plaintiff's motion. The plaintiff appeals.
"A plaintiff in a negligence action moving for summary judgment on the issue of liability must establish, prima facie, that the defendant breached a duty owed to the plaintiff and that the defendant's negligence was a proximate cause of the alleged injuries" (Shannon v Astoria 2101, LLC, 240 AD3d 638, 638-639 [internal quotation marks omitted]; see generally Rodriguez v City of New York, 31 NY3d 312). "A violation of a safety regulation may be considered as some evidence of negligence" (March Assoc. Constr., Inc. v CMC Masonry Constr., 151 AD3d 1050, 1055). Pursuant to 34 RCNY 2-11(e)(10)(vi), "[a]ll plating and decking shall have a skid-resistant surface equal to or greater than the adjacent existing street or roadway surface. The whole surface area of all plating and decking must be skid-resistant." Here, the plaintiff failed to establish, prima facie, that the steel roadway plate at issue violated 34 RCNY 2-11(e)(10)(vi) and that the defendants created a hazardous condition by placing a steel roadway plate without a skid-resistant surface on the roadway. The affidavit of the plaintiff's expert, who never inspected the steel roadway plate and never tested its coefficient of friction, was insufficient to demonstrate, as a matter of law, that the steel roadway plate was in a hazardous condition (see Daefler v Briarcliff Manor Union Free School Dist., 72 AD3d 872, 873; Banks v Freeport Union Free School Dist., 302 AD2d 341, 342; Davidson v Sachem Cent. School Dist., 300 AD2d 276, 277). Since the plaintiff failed to meet his initial [*2]burden as the movant, the burden never shifted to the defendants to raise a triable issue of fact (see Winegrad v New York Univ. Med. Ctr., 64 NY2d 851, 853).
Accordingly, the Supreme Court properly denied the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability.
BARROS, J.P., VOUTSINAS, GOLIA and HOM, JJ., concur.
ENTER:
Darrell M. Joseph
Clerk of the Court
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