Gounarides v. Yankee Stadium Corp.
| Decision Date | 12 September 2014 |
| Docket Number | INDEX NUMBER: 301476/2011 |
| Citation | 2014 NY Slip Op 32634 (U) |
| Parties | DEBORAH GOUNARIDES and MICHAEL GOUNARIDES, Plaintiffs, v. YANKEE STADIUM CORPORATION, YANKEE STADIUM HOLDINGS LLC and YANKEE STADIUM LLC, Defendants. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court |
Present: HON. ALISON Y. TUITT Justice
The following papers Numbered 1 to 3
Read on this Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment
On Calendar of 4/14/14
Notice of Motion-Exhibits, Affirmation 1
Affirmation in Opposition 2
Upon the foregoing papers, defendants Yankee Stadium Holdings LLC and Yankee Stadium LLC (hereinafter "Yankees") motion for summary judgment is granted for the reasons set forth herein.
The within action involves personal injuries allegedly sustained by plaintiff when she allegedly fell down an internal stairwell in the Legends Suite Club (hereinafter "Legends Club") at 8:20 a.m. on April 2, 2009 in Yankee Stadium. That was the first day that an exhibition game was played at the new Yankee Stadium. The plaintiff worked at Yankee Stadium and was employed by Legends Hospitality LLC (hereinafter Legends"]), the concessionaire and an independent contractor. Legends is not a party to this case as it paid plaintiff's workers' compensation benefits. Plaintiff claims her accident occurred before the Legends Club wasopen to the public. She went there at the direction of her supervisor, Phil, because she needed to use the bathroom. Plaintiff claims that the lights were off and she walked from the entrance of the restaurant, along the perimeter of the room, to the women's bathroom. She asserts that after she used the restroom, she walked diagonally across the restaurant floor to return to the door she entered, but fell down the Legends Club's internal staircase because she did not see it. Defendants contend that it did not own, operate, manage or control the Legends Club or its internal staircase, and that Legends Club, an independent contractor, controlled the restaurant, its stairs, employed and supervised the plaintiff, whose alleged accident was unforeseeable, that it had no notice of any i$sues involving lighting in the restaurant that morning or the staircase in question, and that it did not proximately cause plaintiff's accident.
Photographs of the Legends Club and the subject staircase were referenced during the depositions of plaintiff and Peter Pullara, the Yankee's Stadium Superintendent. More than two years after the accident, In July 2011, plaintiff returned to the Legends Club for a training session, where she took about five photographs. There of these photographs were marked as Defendants' Exhibits A through C. Additional photographs referenced at the plaintiff's deposition were marked as Defendants' Exhibits A through D, and I through R at her continued deposition, where she authenticated the photographs as accurately depicting the accident site. Defendants annex the temporary certificate of occupancy issued by the New York City Department of Buildings which shows that there were no issues regarding the staircase or lighting at the Legends Club.
Plaintiff testified at her deposition that when she began working at the new Yankee Stadium for Legends, she was assigned as an in-seat server at the field level. She had a hand-held computer to take orders and a runner would bring the food out to the customer. As a Legends employee, she was only permitted to go to the uniform area, the Legends locker room and her work site. On the date of the accident, April 2, 2009, the Yankees hosted its first baseball game at the new Yankee Stadium, an exhibition game. She arrived at the stadium at 7:00 a.m. and waited on line at the Legends entrance until her name or number was called sometime between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. She entered the Legends entrance and wore her Legends uniform and slip resistant shoes. Once inside the stadium, she turned right and walked toward her designated work are a in the stand between third base and home plate where she would take food orders. She walked around the main concourse to get there. Just after entering the stadium, she had to use the bathroom. While walking around the field levelof the stadium to get to her work location, she tried to enter two public women's and men's restrooms that she passed but they were closed. There were only Legends people around so she informed "Phil" her Legends supervisor that the restrooms were closed and asked where she could find an open restroom. He told her to use the restrocm in the Legends Club, where she had her accident.
Plaintiff testified that the Legends Club was a glass enclosed restaurant with a glass door entrance from the interior concourse, an entrance on the Jerome Avenue side of the stadium, and glass windows facing the playing field. At 8:00 a.m., plaintiff opened the glass door and entered the Legends Club alone. The Legends Club was not opened yet and there was no one there and the lights were not on. Plaintiff testified that it was overcast and dark outside. Plaintiff testified that she walked directly from the concourse door which was facing the seats, toward the back of the restaurant, past a bar on her left until she reached the outside wall of the stadium, separating the Legends Club from Jerome Avenue. She continued walking along the outside wall until she saw the entrance to the ladies' bathroom which she entered and used. At approximately 8:20 a.m., plaintiff exited the ladies' room, she took a straight route, going to the door she had entered. She testified that she was looking around the restaurant as she walked and that she could see out toward the glass windows facing the playing field where some natural light was coming into the room. Although it was dark, she admitted that she had no difficulty seeing as she walked from the ladies' room toward the door to exit. After exiting the restroom, she could see the exit door and glass windows. She walked approximately 40 to 50 feet across the room before she fell. Plaintiff testified that she did not know that she was not retracing her steps before she accidentally came upon a interior set of stairs that led to another part of the Legends Club. Plaintiff further testified that the staircase was surrounded by tinted blue glass walls on three sides with shiny metal chrome wrapping around it. She believed she was walking out the door when she stepped into the staircase and fell down the stairs. She thought the staircase was an exit because she could see a glass wall to her right. When she entered the staircase, plaintiff thought she was walking on level ground. She fell approximately ten steps to the landing. After the accident, she advised Phil and her co-worker Shoyel that she fell. At about 9:30 to 10:00 a.m., she went to Legends' Human Resources and reported her incident to Kevin O'Connor and Arthur McHugh, who filled out an incident report. Plaintiff denied telling him that the accident occurred as she was walking down the stairs and that she misjudged the stairs and fell halfway down the stairs.
Peter Pullara, employed as the stadium superintendent, testified on behalf of the Yankees. He testified that his general duties are to oversee the mechanics and the cleanliness of the stadium. He has staff engineers, electricians, carpenters, cleaners and maintenance workers which carries out preventative maintenance by having a technician walk the building looking for any repairs that need to be made. The stadium was 99% completed in 2009 and it opened to the public in April, 2009. Legends is the Yankees concessionaire and runs, operates and controls concession stands, restaurants and souvenir stands in Yankee Stadium. As superintendent, Mr. Pullara had no authority to direct or supervise Legends employees. The Legends Club occupies two levels of the stadium. The Legends 100 level is an open space with tables and chairs, a bar and a staircase leading to the Legends 100 level, where there are more tables and chairs but no bar. The floor of the club is part carpet and part ceramic that resembles a hardwood floor. On the 100 level, there is a wall of windows that faces the playing field and is immediately adjacent to the 100 level concourse, where fans walk to get to their seats. Just next to the wall of windows is the door that exits onto the 100 level concourse. Mr. Pullara testified that the 100 level concourse is continuously lit at all times with eight foot long fluorescent light sticks, mounted on the ballasts just outside the wall of windows. The wall of windows was not covered and light would shine through the windows. The staircase connecting the two levels is made of granite with rectangular handrails. The stairwell is L shaped with two landings and is enclosed by three walls of blue glass. The stairs do not have lighted risers and he was not aware of any laws that required lighted risers. Before the stadium opened to the public, he walked the building, including the Legends Club and checked for cleanliness and to make sure the lights were working. He inspected the restrooms in the Legends Club and during his inspection he used the stairs. He testified that the lighting was dark but he did not tell anyone. The public bathrooms remained locked until the cleaning company opened them at approximately 9:00 a.m. Mr. Pullara did not know if the restrooms within the Legends Club were locked before the workers arrived. Legends was involved in opening and locking the restaurant's doors and he did not know whether the doors of the Legends Club were locked before the workers arrived. Legends Club was responsible for turning on the lights in the club because it is a private location apart from the rest of the stadium, run exclusively by Legends. The Yankees were responsible for turning on the lights in the stadium's field, stand lights, lights in public stairwell, seating bowls. There was no policy barring anyone from entering the Legends Club when the lights...
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