Harrison v. New York City Transit Authority

113 A.D.3d 472, 978 N.Y.2d 194

This text of 113 A.D.3d 472 (Harrison v. New York City Transit Authority) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harrison v. New York City Transit Authority, 113 A.D.3d 472, 978 N.Y.2d 194 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

[473]*473Plaintiff Antoinette Harrison slipped and fell on a patch of ice on the yellow tactile warning strip at the edge of the Pelham Bay Park subway station platform in the Bronx, fracturing her left ankle. While we believe that there was sufficient evidence presented for the jury to consider whether defendant had constructive notice of the icy condition, we find that the instruction to the jury on this issue was in error.

A common carrier is required to exercise ordinary care in maintaining a subway platform (see Lewis v Metropolitan Transp. Auth., 99 AD2d 246, 248 [1st Dept 1984], affd 64 NY2d 670 [1984]). Thus, except where the defendant created the condition, a plaintiff must prove actual or constructive notice of the dangerous or defective condition and that the defendant had “a sufficient opportunity, within the exercise of reasonable care, to remedy the situation” after receiving such notice (id. at 250; Aquino v Kuczinski, Vila & Assoc., P.C., 39 AD3d 216, 219 [1st Dept 2007]). In this case, plaintiff was required to show on its prima facie case that the icy condition was dangerous, that such condition was visible and apparent, and had existed for a sufficient length of time prior to the accident to permit the defendant’s employees to discover and remedy it (see Gordon v American Museum of Natural History, 67 NY2d 836, 837 [1986]).

Over objection and despite defendant’s request for the correct instruction, the trial court instructed the jury that it had to find that “defendant either knew about the dangerous conditions or circumstances and that would be actual notice or a reasonable person would conclude that such a condition existed, and that would be called constructive notice.” This instruction does not make it clear that in order to find constructive notice, the jury must conclude that the condition was visible and apparent, and that it existed for a sufficient length of time for defendant to have discovered it and taken curative action (see PJI 2:90, 2:111A; Lesser v Manhattan & Bronx Surface Tr. Operating Auth., 157 AD2d 352, 357 [1st Dept 1990]). While the court later instructed the jury that it also needed to find that defendant failed to use reasonable care “or had a reasonable time to remove the snow or ice but failed to do so,” this element of the instruction is not related to the court’s instructions on notice.

[474]*474We agree with defendant that plaintiff did not present evidence of actual notice in this case. Plaintiff did, however, present evidence on the issue of constructive notice sufficient to warrant the jury’s consideration of this issue. For that reason we remand the case to the Supreme Court for a new trial on liability.

The accident occurred on January 18, 2005 at approximately 7:45 a.m. Plaintiff testified that the icy condition was visible and apparent, and that she noticed it immediately after the accident. She stated that there was ice on the yellow dotted strip in front of the train door which caused her foot to slip. She described the icy condition as “irregular[ly] shape[d],” “dirty” and “black,” albeit “small.” Plaintiff explained that immediately after she fell she was carried by the train conductor and a passenger to a nearby bench, about six to eight feet away, from which she readily observed the ice formation on the yellow dotted strip. She also generally described the concrete platform itself as having a slushy mixture of water, ice and snow. Although defendant points to testimony that when its employees later viewed the area of the accident there was no snow or ice on the platform, these divergent accounts of whether there was a visible and apparent dangerous condition are for a jury to decide. As to whether the icy condition existed long enough for defendant to have discovered it and taken curative action, there is sufficient evidence from which a jury could reasonably reach that conclusion. While the evidence on the issue of constructive notice cannot be speculative (see Solazzo v New York City Tr. Auth., 6 NY3d 734 [2005]), it can be based upon circumstantial evidence. If the evidence permits a reasonable inference that the condition existed long enough for a defendant to have remedied it, then the issue of constructive notice should be presented to the jury (see Rodriguez v Bronx Zoo Rest., Inc., 110 AD3d 412 [1st Dept 2013]).

The subway platform was elevated, outdoors, and covered only by a slanted concrete canopy, which, as depicted in photographs, did not extend over the entire width of the platform. It nearly reached, but did not cover, the platform edge where the yellow strip on which plaintiff fell was located. At the time of the accident, plaintiff reported seeing water dripping off the canopy. Anthony Aguago, the station cleaner, testified that he had observed water dripping off the canopy onto the yellow strip “lots of times.” He affirmed that it was routine for water to drip on the platform edge whenever it rained. Although a general awareness that subway platforms become wet in inclement weather is not sufficient to establish notice of a specific [475]*475condition (see Solazzo at 735), a recurring known water condition will suffice (Talavera v New York City Tr. Auth., 41 AD3d 135 [1st Dept 2007]). Here there was additional evidence, including climatological data, recurrent dripping conditions and freezing temperatures on the day that immediately preceded plaintiffs accident, supporting a conclusion that the source of the icy condition was the earlier snowstorm (see Reynolds v Masonville Rod & Gun Club, 247 AD2d 682, 682 [3d Dept 1998] [“(l)acking any climatological data” the court concluded that the icy condition had not formed in time for the defendant to have remedied it]).

There are weather reports from the National Climatic Data Center, in evidence, showing that it snowed the day before the accident, on January 17, 2005, between the hours of 2:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. and that, thereafter, the temperatures ranged from 9 degrees to 27 degrees Fahrenheit. There was no other precipitation after that snowfall up through the time of the accident. The climatological data also showed that the weather was dry on January 15 and 16, 2005 and that the temperature for the first half of January was considerably warmer than freezing. This evidence is sufficient to raise an inference that the source of the slushy ice condition testified to by plaintiff was the snowstorm that occurred approximately 21 hours before.

The weather reports further confirm an accumulation of three tenths of an inch of snow on January 17, 2005. According to the National Climatic Data Center records, this measurable amount is more than a “trace precipitation amount” which would otherwise be denoted a “T” in the records. Although defendant urges us to conclude, as a matter of law, that there was not enough snow to have created the claimed condition, there is no scientific evidence, or any other basis in the trial record, supporting this conclusion.

Further, Mr. Augago, whose shift began within minutes of the accident, testified that when he went to the site of the accident he observed that snow melt had already been scattered about the platform. Mr. Burgos, the Transit Authority cleaner on duty before and through the time of the accident, and who presumably had direct knowledge of the platform conditions, was never produced by defendant. Snow melt is the defendant’s response to wet, cold and icy conditions on the platform.

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Bluebook (online)
113 A.D.3d 472, 978 N.Y.2d 194, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harrison-v-new-york-city-transit-authority-nyappdiv-2014.