Opinion
Argued September 29, 2000.
November 21, 2000.
In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, etc., the defendant Jonang, Inc., appeals, as limited by its brief, from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Milano, J.), dated September 20, 1999, as denied its motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against it.
Robert P. Pagano, Pearl River, N.Y., for appellant.
Weicholz, Monteleone, Peters Studley, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Mitchell J. Studley of counsel), for respondents.
Before: CORNELIUS J. O'BRIEN, J.P., LEO F. McGINITY, DANIEL F. LUCIANO, ROBERT W. SCHMIDT, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the order is reversed insofar as appealed from, on the law, with costs, the appellant's motion is granted, the complaint is dismissed insofar as asserted against the appellant, and the action against the remaining defendant is severed.
The plaintiff Mary J. Donahue was injured after she fell on a patch of ice in a parking lot owned by the defendant E. Petracca Co., Inc. (hereinafter Petracca). The defendant Jonang, Inc. (hereinafter Jonang), is a contractor which was responsible for removing snow from the subject premises pursuant to an agreement with Petracca.
Where a snow removal contract is not a comprehensive and exclusive property maintenance obligation intended to displace a landowner's duty to maintain the property, as is the case here, the contractor owes no duty of reasonable care to prevent foreseeable harm to an injured plaintiff (see, Bugiada v. Iko, 274 A.D.2d 368 [2d Dept., July 3, 2000]). The exception to this rule is where the contractor's actions have "advanced to such a point as to have launched a force or instrument of harm" (Moch Co. v. Rensselaer Water Co., 247 N.Y. 1 60, 168; see, Pavlovich v. Wade Assocs., 274 A.D.2d 382 [2d Dept., July 3, 2000]). Here, in opposition to Jonang's prima facie case for summary judgment the plaintiff failed to raise a traible issue of fact as to whether the above exception applies.
In view of the foregoing, we need not reach the plaintiffs' remaining contentions.