Opinion
2013-02-21
Anna ORTIZ, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. ROSE NEDERLANDER ASSOCIATES, INC., et al., Defendants–Respondents.
Gottlieb Siegel & Schwartz, LLP, Bronx (Michael Gottlieb of counsel), for appellant. Nicoletti Gonson Spinner & Owen LLP, New York (Kevin Michael Ryan of counsel), for respondents.
Gottlieb Siegel & Schwartz, LLP, Bronx (Michael Gottlieb of counsel), for appellant. Nicoletti Gonson Spinner & Owen LLP, New York (Kevin Michael Ryan of counsel), for respondents.
FRIEDMAN, J.P., SWEENY, RENWICK, FREEDMAN, ROMÁN, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Kenneth L. Thompson, Jr., J.), entered December 6, 2011, which, in this personal injury action arising from a slip and fall, granted defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
Plaintiff fell on a backstage staircase that she had been sent to clean off accumulated debris. Although plaintiff testified that there was “poor lighting” on the backstage staircase where she fell, she testified that she fell because the step was uneven or pitched forward. Thus, plaintiff failed to submit sufficient evidence to raise an issue of fact as to whether the alleged poor lighting was a proximate cause of her fall ( see Batista v. New York City Tr. Auth., 66 A.D.3d 433, 434, 886 N.Y.S.2d 403 [1st Dept. 2009]; Kane v. Estia Greek Rest., 4 A.D.3d 189, 190, 772 N.Y.S.2d 59 [1st Dept. 2004] ).
Moreover, plaintiff's expert's opinion that the stairs violated Administrative Code of the City of New York former §§ 27–127 and 27–128, is unavailing. Those sections “merely require that the owner of a building maintain and be responsible for its safe condition,” and liability will not be imposed in the absence of a breach of some specific safety provision ( Hinton v. City of New York, 73 A.D.3d 407, 408, 901 N.Y.S.2d 21 [1st Dept. 2010] [internal quotation marks omitted], lv. denied15 N.Y.3d 715, 915 N.Y.S.2d 216, 940 N.E.2d 922 [2010] ).