Rivera v. Victoria's Secret Stores, LLC

130 A.D.3d 436, 11 N.Y.S.3d 481

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: July 2, 2015
• Docket: 15596 155874/12
• Status: Published

Opinion

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Joan M. Kenney, J.), entered June 12, 2014, which granted defendant Victoria’s Secret Stores, LLC’s (Victoria’s Secret) motion for summary judgment dismissing plaintiff’s complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Victoria’s Secret established its entitlement to judgment as a matter of law, in this action where plaintiff alleges that she was injured when she tripped and fell over the white wooden base of a clothing rack. Victoria’s Secret submitted photographic and testimonial evidence showing that the base was open and obvious, and not inherently dangerous, and that it did not have prior notice of any dangerous condition regarding the rack or its base (see Villanti v BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc., 106 AD3d 556, 556-557 [1st Dept 2013]).

In opposition, plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact. The record shows that optical confusion did not cause plaintiff’s accident, since she testified that she was looking straight ahead, and not at the ground, as she approached the rack (see id. at 432). Concur — Mazzarelli, J.P., Friedman, Richter, Manzanet-Daniels and Gische, JJ.