Gurmendi v. Perry Street Development Corp.

93 A.D.3d 635, 939 N.Y.S.2d 549
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided March 6, 2012·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

[636] In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the plaintiff appeals (1), as limited by his brief, from so much of a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Ruchelsman, J.), dated August 10, 2010, as, upon so much of an order of the same court dated October 20, 2009, as granted that branch of the motion of the defendant Pucuda, Inc., doing business as Leading Edge Safety Systems, which was for summary judgment dismissing the second amended complaint insofar as asserted against that defendant, is in favor of the defendant Pucuda, Inc., doing business as Leading Edge Safety Systems, and against him, in effect, dismissing the second amended complaint insofar as asserted against that defendant, and (2) from a judgment of the same court dated December 6, 2010, which, upon so much of an order of the same court dated July 15, 2010, as granted those branches of the motion of the defendant J Companies and the cross motion of the defendant Perry Street Development Corp. which were for summary judgment dismissing the second amended complaint insofar as asserted against each of those defendants, is in favor of the defendants J Companies and Perry Street Development Corp. and against him dismissing the second amended complaint insofar as asserted against those defendants.

Ordered that the judgment dated August 10, 2010, is modified, on the law, by adding a provision thereto severing all remaining claims from the claims asserted against the defendant Pucuda, Inc., doing business as Leading Edge Safety Systems; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed insofar as appealed from; and it is further,

Ordered that the judgment dated December 6, 2010, is reversed, on the law, those branches of the motion of the defendant J Companies and the cross motion of the defendant Perry Street Development Corp. which were for summary judgment dismissing the second amended complaint insofar as asserted against each of them are denied, the order dated July 15, 2010, is modified accordingly, and the second amended complaint is reinstated insofar as asserted against those defendants; and it is further,

Ordered that one bill of costs is awarded to the plaintiff, payable by the defendants J Companies and Perry Street Development Corp., and one bill of costs is awarded to the defendant Pucuda, Inc., doing business as Leading Edge Safety Systems, payable by the plaintiff.

[637] The defendant Perry Street Development Corp. (hereinafter Perry) was formed to oversee the condominium development of a building it owned (hereinafter the project), which was located at 166 Perry Street, Manhattan. Perry hired the defendant J Companies as the construction manager for the project. In the fall of 2005, after construction work was underway, a stop work order was issued due to the lack of fall protection/safety netting. Thereafter, Perry entered into an agreement with the defendant Pucuda, Inc., doing business as Leading Edge Safety Systems (hereinafter Pucuda), for the rental of perimeter safety netting.

The existing building at 166 Perry Street had a five-foot parapet wall around the entire building. The safety netting was installed below the parapet wall, and it was intended to “catch loads” and “deflect.” The installation of the safety netting was completed on or about October 14, 2005, by the third-party defendant, Exterior Wall and Building Consultants, Inc. (hereinafter EWBC).

On the day of the accident, the plaintiff was working as a carpenter at a construction project located at 176 Perry Street, which was next to the site at 166 Perry Street, and was standing on the flatbed of a delivery truck, helping to unload a delivery of sheetrock, when bricks, stones, ice, and branches fell onto him. At his deposition, the plaintiff testified that as a result of being struck, he fell onto his right side, striking his right knee on the sheetrock. He further testified that the driver of the delivery truck urged the plaintiff to move out of the way of the falling debris, and extended his hand to help the plaintiff off the truck. Despite this effort, however, the plaintiff fell from the truck to the pavement below, and allegedly injured his left hand and right leg. The plaintiff testified that at that time, he saw that the items were falling from the protective netting at the project and that the center of the safety netting was split or broken. The plaintiff filed a second amended complaint in this personal injury action against, among others, Pucuda, Perry, and J Companies, and those defendants subsequently moved or cross-moved, inter alia, for summary judgment dismissing the second amended complaint insofar as asserted against each of them.

The Supreme Court properly granted that branch of Pucuda’s motion which was for summary judgment dismissing the second amended complaint insofar as asserted against it. Pucuda established its entitlement to judgment as a matter of law by demonstrating that it did not owe a duty to the plaintiff since the plaintiff was not a party or intended third-party beneficiary to the perimeter safety netting rental contract between Pucuda [638] and the owner of the premises (see Stiver v Good & Fair Carting & Moving, Inc., 9 NY3d 253, 256, 257 [2007]; Espinal v Melville Snow Contrs., 98 NY2d 136, 138 [2002]; Sainval-Brice v All Seasons Indus. Servs., Inc., 85 AD3d 1004, 1004 [2011]; Foster v Herbert Slepoy Corp., 76 AD3d 210 [2010]; Spitzer v Tranese, 72 AD3d 674, 674-675 [2010]). In opposition, the plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether Pucuda launched a force or instrument of harm, the plaintiff detrimentally relied on the continued performance of Pucuda’s duties, or Pucuda entirely displaced the owner’s duty to maintain the premises safely (see Espinal v Melville Snow Contrs., 98 NY2d at 138-140; Sainval-Brice v All Seasons Indus. Servs., Inc., 85 AD3d at 1005; Spitzer v Tranese, 72 AD3d at 675).

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Gurmendi v. Perry Street Development Corp., 93 A.D.3d 635, 939 N.Y.S.2d 549 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2012).

93 A.D.3d 635 (Gurmendi v. Perry Street Development Corp.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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