Kahn v. City of New York

37 A.D.2d 520, 321 N.Y.S.2d 791, 1971 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3889
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJune 8, 1971
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 37 A.D.2d 520 (Kahn v. City of New York) 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
Kahn v. City of New York, 37 A.D.2d 520, 321 N.Y.S.2d 791, 1971 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3889 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County, entered December 16, 1970, reversed, on the law, and the motion of third-party defendant Duncan Parking Meter Maintenance Co., Inc. for summary judgment dismissing third-party complaint of City of New York as to it is granted. Appellant shall recover of respondent City of New York $50 costs and disbursements of this appeal. The third-party defendant properly utilized the summary judgment remedy to procure a determination whether or not the city had a basis to a right of indemnity over. Such a motion is favored as “ a fruitful remedy ” and thereupon there should be a “disclosure of the facts” alleged to support the third-party’s right of indemnity. (See Braun v. City of New York, 17 A D 2d 264, 268, Breitel, J. P.) Where, upon such a motion, the third-party plaintiff’s right of indemnity is properly challenged by sufficiently detailed affidavits, it is incumbent upon the third-party plaintiff to come forward with answering affidavits asserting evidentiary facts. He is bound to reveal his proofs in support of the claim over. (See Indig v. Finkelstein, 23 N Y 2d 728, affg. 29 A D 2d 851; Shapiro v. Health Ins. Plan, 7 N Y 2d 56; Lamarr v. Klein, 35 A D 2d 248; Ball v. United Artists Corp., 13 A D 2d 133, 141; Di Sabato v. Soffes, 9 A D 2d 297.) The third-party plaintiff may not rely upon the allegations of his complaint as constituting proof supporting his alleged claims. Allegations in a pleading or bill of particulars are not accepted as proof defeating a summary judgment application. (See Indig v. Finkelstein, supra, p. 729, and cases cited.) Under the circumstances, the allegation in the third-party complaint that the contract provided that the third-party defendant should indemnify and save harmless the city does not constitute proof that there was such a contract. Here, answering affidavits were requested five days before the return day, but, according to the record on appeal as settled, there appears to have been nothing submitted by way of a factual showing in opposition to the motion for summary judgment. The affidavit submitted in opposition by the Assistant Corporation Counsel merely refers to the pleadings and merely states the city’s contentions. Although there is the claim of a contractual right of indemnity, the city has failed to submit any proof of the same. The dissenting memorandum, in an effort to support a case in behalf of the city, refers to a contract not contained in the record and which is not proven or identified as to parties, date or subject matter. As a basis for a “possibility of a claim over” (citing Braun v. City of New York, 17 A D 2d 264, 268), reference is made to a provision in such alleged contract whereby the “ Contractor ” agrees to indemnify the city for claims for damages and injuries “to persons or property resulting from the negligence or carelessness of the Contractor or his subcontractors, on account of any act or omission of the Contractor” in the matter of the work to be performed or the materials or equipment furnished under the contract or on account of the failure of the contractor to perform under the contract or to maintain parking [521]*521meters as therein provided. Here, however, the alleged defective condition of the street was not caused by the act or omission of a contractor or subcontractor but occurred by reason of an act of a third person, a motorist. There is nothing factually submitted to indicate the applicability of this particular contractual provision. In any event, the court should not base a determination upon the construction and application of special contractual provisions which were not presented or considered at 'Special Term or reviewed in the briefs or arguments of the parties to the appeal, particularly where such construction and application may be disputed. (Cf. Glomboski v. Baltimore & Ohio R. R. Co., 35 A D 2d 772.) Moreover, the city prepared and prosecuted its appeal on a record on appeal. We should not go beyond that record to seek out and consider the effect of contractual provisions or other evidentiary data claimed to support a right of indemnity. An appellant who submits an appeal on an incomplete record should abide the consequences. (See Di Francesco v. Di Francesco, 23 A D 2d 740.) “It is well established that review by this court is limited to the record made before Special Term and the court is bound by the certified record on appeal.” (Mulligan v. Lackey, 33 A D 2d 991, 992; see, also, Matter of Niagara County Water Dist. v. Board of Assessors, 31 A D 2d 1004.) Finally, the city fails to show a right of indemnity on the theory that it may have been merely passively negligent whereas the third-party defendant was guilty of active negligence. It affirmatively appears that the condition of the sidewalk, including the hole therein responsible for plaintiff’s fall on June 12, 1962, occurred as a result of an automobile accident a month previously, on May 12, 1962, when a parking meter was struck by an automobile. The city, through its Police Department, had immediate notice of the accident and of the hole in the sidewalk. Notice to the police was notice to the city (Kunz v. City of Troy, 104 N. Y. 344) and, under the circumstances, the city’s failure to repair after actual notice would constitute active negligence as a failure to comply with a nondelegable duty. (See Jackson v. Associated Dry Goods Corp., 13 N Y 2d 112.) “Active negligence * * * is not determined by whether the conduct of the party seeking indemnification is affirmative or passive, for acts of omission as well as acts of commission may constitute active negligence ”. (Jackson v. Associated Dry Goods Corp., supra, p. 116.) Accordingly, absent a factual showing that the parties were not in pari delicto, the city would not have a right of recovery over against the third-party defendant for alleged active negligence in also failing to comply with an obligation (contractual or otherwise) to repair. (Cf. Putvin v. Buffalo Elec. Co., 5 N Y 2d 447; Sobel v. City of New York, 9 N Y 2d 187.) The summary judgment remedy is particularly a useful one and should be encouraged. (See Senrow Concessions v. Shelton Props., 10 N Y 2d 320, 326; Julien J. Studley, Inc. v. Goldner, 28 A D 2d 1103.) The use of the remedy is frustrated where, as here, the opposing party merely relies on his pleadings' and fails to come forward and reveal his proofs to show an issue of fact. In this ease, if the city were able to show that there did exist an issue of fact, its remedy was not to appeal upon a record devoid of any showing on its part but to timely request permission "to reargue and to submit its proofs. Concu Stevens, P. J., Markewich and Eager, JJ. Capozzoli and Tilzer, JJ., dissent in the following memorandum by Capozzoli, J.: I dissent and vote to affirm the order denying the motion of the third-party defendant-appellant for summary judgment dismissing the third-party complaint. The main thrust of the majority opinion is directed to the failure of the city to have produced the contract which exists between the third-party defendant and the city. It seems to me that this is a highly technical position for the majority to assume. [522]*522Both sides have referred to the contract in their pleadings and in their briefs. If anything, it is settled law that the defendant, who moved for summary judgment, was under the duty to produce all documents and any evidentiary facts to warrant' granting of its motion. (O’Connor-Sullivan v. Otto, 283 App. Div.

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Bluebook (online)
37 A.D.2d 520, 321 N.Y.S.2d 791, 1971 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3889, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kahn-v-city-of-new-york-nyappdiv-1971.