MacDonald v. City of Schenectady

308 A.D.2d 125, 761 N.Y.S.2d 752, 2003 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8041
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJuly 10, 2003
StatusPublished
Cited by51 cases

This text of 308 A.D.2d 125 (MacDonald v. City of Schenectady) 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
MacDonald v. City of Schenectady, 308 A.D.2d 125, 761 N.Y.S.2d 752, 2003 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8041 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Spain, J.

Plaintiff commenced this action to recover for injuries alleg[126]*126edly sustained when she tripped on a crack in a sidewalk located outside premises owned by defendant Rose Nejman in the City of Schenectady, Schenectady County. The complaint alleges that defendants failed to “properly inspect, repair and maintain” the damaged sidewalk. The record reveals that the sidewalk had been in need of repair since defendant City of Schenectady removed a tree stump from the site approximately six years prior to plaintiffs accident. Based on plaintiffs admissions that she was aware of the condition of the sidewalk, having encountered it on a daily basis for over a month prior to the incident, defendants moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint on the ground that the defect was open and obvious. Following precedent from this Court stating that “[a] landowner generally has no duty to correct or warn of a condition that is readily observable (i.e., open and obvious) to a person of ordinary intelligence employing the reasonable use of his or her intelligence” (Patrie v Gorton, 267 AD2d 582, 582 [1999] , Iv denied 94 NY2d 761 [2000]), Supreme Court granted the motions. Plaintiff appeals.

It is undisputed that the allegedly dangerous condition was readily observable and that plaintiff was well aware of it, indeed, even to the extent of pointing it out to a friend on a prior occasion. Under these circumstances, the open and obvious nature of the defect negated any duty that defendants, as landowners, owed plaintiff to warn of potentially dangerous conditions (see Binensztok v Marshall Stores, 228 AD2d 534, 535 [1996]; De Rossi v Golub Corp., 209 AD2d 911, 912 [1994], lv denied 85 NY2d 804 [1995]; Tarricone v State of New York, 175 AD2d 308, 309 [1991], lv denied 78 NY2d 862 [1991]; Poerio v State of New York, 144 AD2d 129, 131 [1988]). At issue, however, is whether the obviousness of the condition also negates the broader duty of landowners “to maintain their properties in reasonably safe condition” (Di Ponzio v Riordan, 89 NY2d 578, 582 [1997]; see Comeau v Wray, 241 AD2d 602, 603 [1997]; Thornhill v Toys “R” Us NYTEX, 183 AD2d 1071, 1072 [1992]).

While cognizant that this Court has previously held that obviousness negates a landowner’s duty to maintain his or her property under factually similar circumstances (see Patrie v Gorton, supra), and that language broadly stating that principle has made its way into a number of our other cases (see e.g. Cartuccio v KCMC Trust, 280 AD2d 831, 831 [2001]; O’Leary v Saugerties Cent. School Dist, 277 AD2d 662, 663 [2000] ; Vliet v Crowley Foods, 263 AD2d 941, 942 [1999]; Hop-[127]*127son v Turf House, 252 AD2d 796 [1998]; Gransbury v K Mart Corp., 229 AD2d 891, 892 [1996]),

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Bluebook (online)
308 A.D.2d 125, 761 N.Y.S.2d 752, 2003 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8041, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/macdonald-v-city-of-schenectady-nyappdiv-2003.