Ambriano v. Town of Oyster Bay

• Decision Date: 22 November 1999
• Citation: 266 A.D.2d 415,698 N.Y.S.2d 696
• Parties: Nicholas AMBRIANO, et al., plaintiffs-respondents, v. TOWN OF OYSTER BAY, defendant-respondent, Long Island Railroad, et al., appellants.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 696

698 N.Y.S.2d 696

Nicholas AMBRIANO, et al., plaintiffs-respondents, v. TOWN OF OYSTER BAY, defendant-respondent Long Island Railroad, et al., appellants.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, New York.

Nov. 22, 1999.

Chesney & Murphy, LLP, Baldwin, N.Y. (Gregory E. Brower of counsel), for appellant Long Island Railroad.

Eschen & Frenkel, LLP, Bayshore, N.Y. (Calvin L. Weintraub of counsel), for appellant Mill Rental Corp.

Carole A. Burns, Mineola, N.Y. (Patricia M. McDonagh of counsel), for defendant-respondent.

CORNELIUS J. O'BRIEN, J.P., FRED T. SANTUCCI, WILLIAM C. THOMPSON and MYRIAM J. ALTMAN, JJ.

MEMORANDUM BY THE COURT.

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, etc., the defendants Long Island Railroad and Mill Rental Corp. separately appeal, as limited by their briefs, from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (McCarty, J.), dated October 14, 1998, as denied their motion and cross motion, respectively, for summary judgment dismissing the complaint and any cross claims insofar as asserted against them.

ORDERED that the order is reversed, on the law, with one bill of costs, the motion and cross motion are granted, the complaint and any cross claims are dismissed insofar as asserted against the defendants Long Island Railroad and Mill Rental Inc., and the action against the remaining defendant is severed.

The plaintiff Nicholas Ambriano slipped on a patch of ice in a parking lot at the Long Island Railroad (hereinafter the LIRR) station at Bethpage and broke his leg. The parking lot was owned and maintained by the defendant Town of Oyster Bay. The defendant Mill Rental Corp. (hereinafter Mill Rental) had a contract with the Town to provide equipment and operators to assist in snow removal operations in various locations, including the LIRR station parking lots. The plaintiffs commenced this action against the LIRR, the Town, and Mill Rental.

The LIRR established its entitlement to summary judgment as a matter of law. The duty of the LIRR to its passengers "extends to the exercise of reasonable care in affording them safe approaches to the stations and platforms, and this duty applies not only to such approaches as may have been constructed and owned by the company, but to those constructed and owned by others, if constantly and notoriously used by passengers as a means of approach" (Bruno v. Vernon Park Realty, 2 A.D.2d 770, 771, 154 N.Y.S.2d 587; see also, O'Hara v. New York City Tr. Auth., 248 A.D.2d 138, 670 N.Y.S.2d 419; Fortson v. New York City Tr. Auth., 111 A.D.2d 58, 489 N.Y.S.2d 182; Lewis v. Metropolitan Transp. Auth., 99 A.D.2d 246, 472 N.Y.S.2d 368, affd. 64 N.Y.2d 670, 485 N.Y.S.2d 252, 474 N.E.2d 612). The duty of the LIRR to provide safe approaches to its station does not encompass the responsibility for snow removal in adjacent Town-owned parking lots, and the Town did not dispute that the municipality was responsible for snow removal operations there.

Further, we find no merit to the contention that the LIRR was liable for Ambriano's injuries because...