Huguens v. Vill. of Spring Valley

• Decision Date: 19 July 2011
• Docket Number: 2010-03428,Index No. 950/08
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division
• Parties: Joseph Huguens, appellant, v. Village of Spring Valley, et al., defendants, A & R Rockland Realty, LLC, et al., respondents (and a third-party action).

2011 NY Slip Op 06019

Joseph Huguens, appellant,

v. Village of Spring Valley, et al., defendants,A & R Rockland Realty, LLC, et al., respondents (and a third-party action).

2010-03428

Index No. 950/08

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORKAPPELLATE DIVISION : SECOND JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT

Decided on July 19, 2011

A. GAIL PRUDENTI, P.J.

RANDALL T. ENG

L. PRISCILLA HALL

PLUMMER E. LOTT, JJ.

Harmon, Linder & Rogowsky, New York, N.Y. (Mitchell Dranow of counsel), for appellant.

Craig P. Curcio, Middletown, N.Y. (Douglas S. Goldberg of counsel), for respondent A & R Rockland Realty, LLC.

Goldstein & Metzger, LLP, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (Paul J. Goldstein of counsel), for respondent Caribreeze Vegetarian Restaurant.

DECISION & ORDER

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the plaintiff appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Rockland County (Garvey, J.), dated February 25, 2010, which granted the separate motions of the defendants A & R Rockland Realty, LLC, and Caribreeze Vegetarian Restaurant for summary judgment dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against them.

ORDERED that the order is affirmed, with one bill of costs.

Contrary to the plaintiff's contentions, the defendants A & R Rockland Realty, LLC, and Caribreeze Vegetarian Restaurant (hereinafter together the defendants), satisfied their burden of demonstrating their prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law on their respective motions for summary judgment.

"The owner or lessee of property abutting a public sidewalk is under no duty to remove ice and snow that naturally accumulates upon the sidewalk unless a statute or ordinance specifically imposes tort liability for failing to do so" (Bruzzo v County of Nassau, 50 AD3d 720, 721; see Plotits v Houaphing D. Chaou, LLC, 81 AD3d 620, 621). While the plaintiff correctly observes that the Code of the Village of Spring Valley § 229-32 places the duty to clear snow and ice from a municipal sidewalk on the owner and occupant of the abutting property, and imposes tort liability for injuries arising from noncompliance with the ordinance, the Code of the Village of Spring Valley § 229-33 expressly provides that owners and occupants have eight daylight hours following the cessation of a snowfall within which to comply with the ordinance. Since the plaintiff's accident occurred well within the eight-hour period, the defendants could not be liable for any failure to clear the sidewalk at the time the plaintiff fell (see Cangemi v...