Figueroa v. Haven Plaza Housing Development Fund Co., Inc.
| Decision Date | 03 February 1998 |
| Parties | Giselle FIGUEROA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HAVEN PLAZA HOUSING DEVELOPMENT FUND COMPANY, INC., et al., Defendants-Respondents. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
Manuel A. Romero, for plaintiff-appellant.
Robert P. Fumo, for defendants-respondents.
Before SULLIVAN, J.P., and WALLACH, WILLIAMS and ANDRIAS, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Sheila Abdus-Salaam, J.), entered on or about January 6, 1997, which granted defendant's motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
In this action for damages arising out of a trip and fall over a depression in a walkway, summary judgment was properly granted. The shallow, gradual character of the depression, measured by plaintiff to be an inch and one-half is readily discernible in plaintiff's photographs. Viewing the affidavits and exhibits in the light most favorable to plaintiff, we conclude that the court properly considered all the relevant circumstances (see, Trincere v. County of Suffolk, 90 N.Y.2d 976, 665 N.Y.S.2d 615, 688 N.E.2d 489) and determined that the alleged defect was trivial, and possessed none of the characteristics of a trap or snare.
The court properly disregarded as conclusory that part of plaintiff's expert's opinion that was based on observations of the walkway made two years after the accident (see, Drillings v. Beth Israel Med. Ctr., 200 A.D.2d 381, 606 N.Y.S.2d 191). Although the expert stated that his conclusions were based on his on site inspection and the photographs taken days following the accident, he never compared his observations to the photographs or stated that the condition of the depression in 1995 was the same as it was at the time of the accident in October 1993.
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