Opinion
Index No. 27683/16E No. 17399 Case No. 2021-02147
02-23-2023
Charles Webb, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. New York City Transit Authority et al., Defendants-Appellants, The City of New York et al., Defendants.
Anna J. Ervolina, New York City Transit Authority Law Department, Brooklyn (Timothy J. O'Shaughnessy of counsel), for appellants. Aaronson Rappaport Feinstein & Deutsch, LLP, New York (Elliott J. Zucker of counsel), for respondent.
Anna J. Ervolina, New York City Transit Authority Law Department, Brooklyn (Timothy J. O'Shaughnessy of counsel), for appellants.
Aaronson Rappaport Feinstein & Deutsch, LLP, New York (Elliott J. Zucker of counsel), for respondent.
Before: Renwick, J.P., González, Shulman, Rodriguez, Higgitt, JJ.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Mitchell J. Danziger, J.), entered April 26, 2021, in favor of plaintiff and against defendants New York City Transit Authority, Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and MTA Bus Company on the issue of liability, and bringing up for review an order, same court and Justice, entered September 11, 2020, which, to the extent appealed from, granted plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability against these defendants, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The court correctly granted plaintiff summary judgment as to liability because the record established as a matter of law that the appealing defendants breached their common carrier's duty to stop at a place where alighting passengers may safely disembark and leave the area (see Miller v Fernan,73 N.Y.2d 844, 846 [1988]; Blye v Manhattan & Bronx Surface Tr. Operating Auth., 124 A.D.2d 106, 109-111 [1st Dept 1987], affd 72 N.Y.2d 888 [1988]). Despite admittedly seeing ice on the sidewalk upon approaching the bus stop, the bus driver opened the rear doors of the bus for passengers to disembark, even though the doors were positioned over the hazardous condition, instead of restricting exit from the bus through the front door, where a safe means of egress was available. Whether plaintiff heard the bus driver's direction to exit through the front door is immaterial, as plaintiff is not required to demonstrate the absence of his own comparative fault in order to obtain partial summary judgment on defendants' liability (see generally Rodriguez v City of New York, 31 N.Y.3d 312 [2018]).