[DOWNLOAD] "Kevin Burlingame v. Matthew Hefti" by Supreme Court of New York " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Kevin Burlingame v. Matthew Hefti
- Author : Supreme Court of New York
- Release Date : January 13, 1992
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 66 KB
Description
Order unanimously reversed on the law with costs, motion denied and complaint reinstated. Memorandum: Plaintiff was found
lying on the ground seriously injured underneath the bedroom window of his third floor apartment. The window had been broken
and removed a few weeks earlier and had not been replaced by the defendants, who are the landlords. Plaintiff acknowledged
in his deposition testimony that he was very intoxicated on the evening of the accident and could not recall how the accident
occurred because he blacked out. Supreme Court granted defendants summary judgment on the ground that no matter how the accident
occurred, plaintiff's intoxication was the sole proximate cause of the accident, as a matter of law. That was error. Summary judgment is rarely appropriate in negligence actions (see, Ugarizza v Schmieder, 46 N.Y.2d 471) and proximate cause
is almost always a question of fact (see, Derdiarian v Felix Contr. Corp., 51 N.Y.2d 308). Plaintiff has raised triable issues
of fact regarding how the accident occurred, whether defendants were negligent in failing to replace the window and, if so,
whether such negligence was a proximate cause of plaintiff's injuries (see, Pontello v County of Onondaga, 94 A.D.2d 427;
Snyder v Moore, 72 A.D.2d 580). Plaintiff was not required to demonstrate the precise manner in which the accident occurred
or to negate every other possible cause of the accident (see, Kahn v Gates Constr. Corp., 103 A.D.2d 438).