Johnson v. Nouveau Elevator Industries, Inc.

Citation38 A.D.3d 611,831 N.Y.S.2d 527,2007 NY Slip Op 02076
Decision Date13 March 2007
Docket Number2005-10847.
PartiesHYACINTH JOHNSON, Appellant, v. NOUVEAU ELEVATOR INDUSTRIES, INC., Respondent.
CourtNew York Supreme Court Appellate Division

Ordered that the order is affirmed, with costs.

The plaintiff allegedly sustained personal injuries when the doors of an elevator in the building where she worked closed on her left hand. The elevator was equipped with a safety device called a door edge detector, which was supposed to prevent the doors from closing when there was an object in their path. The plaintiff commenced the present action, naming, as the sole defendant, the company which had entered into a written agreement with the owner of the building to service and maintain the subject elevator. Thereafter, the defendant moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint on the ground that it did not create, have notice of, or negligently fail to remedy the alleged defective condition.

The Supreme Court properly granted the motion. "An elevator company which agrees to maintain an elevator in safe operating condition may be liable to a passenger for failure to correct conditions of which it has knowledge or failure to use reasonable care to discover and correct a condition which it ought to have found" (Carrasco v Millar El. Indus., 305 AD2d 353, 354 [2003] [internal quotation marks omitted]). The defendant established a prima facie case that it did not create the alleged defective condition and also that it had no actual or constructive notice of the defective condition, as there was no evidence of any such prior malfunctions of the subject elevator (see Carrasco v Millar El. Indus., supra). The affidavit prepared by the plaintiff's expert in opposition to the motion failed to raise a triable issue of fact (see CPLR 3212 [b]). The expert claimed that a broken wire in the electrical traveling cable in the same elevator, which existed approximately six weeks before the subject accident, provided the defendant with notice of the alleged defect to the door edge detector. While the record is ambiguous as to whether the broken wire occurred in the same elevator where the plaintiff was injured,...

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12 cases
  • Tucci v. Starrett City, Inc.
    • United States
    • New York Supreme Court Appellate Division
    • July 25, 2012
    ...condition, as there was no evidence of any such prior malfunctions of the subject elevator ( see Johnson v. Nouveau El. Indus., Inc., 38 A.D.3d 611, 612, 831 N.Y.S.2d 527), and that it did not fail to use reasonable care to correct a condition of which it should have been aware ( see Isaac ......
  • Davis v. Rochdale Vill. Inc.
    • United States
    • New York Supreme Court Appellate Division
    • April 26, 2011
    ...building through an entrance which the defendant failed to adequately secure ( see Jackson v. Lefferts Hgts. Hous. Dev., Fund Co., Inc., 38 A.D.3d at 611, 831 N.Y.S.2d 528; Alvarez v. Masaryk Towers Corp., 15 A.D.3d at 429, 789 N.Y.S.2d 727; Lester v. New York City Hous. Auth., 292 A.D.2d a......
  • Lanzillo v. 4 World Trade Ctr., LLC
    • United States
    • New York Supreme Court Appellate Division
    • June 23, 2021
    ...1102, 1103, 999 N.Y.S.2d 182 ; Tucci v. Starrett City, Inc., 97 A.D.3d at 812, 949 N.Y.S.2d 419 ; Johnson v. Nouveau El. Indus., Inc., 38 A.D.3d 611, 612, 831 N.Y.S.2d 527 ). In opposition, the plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact. The affidavit of the plaintiff's expert, where......
  • Goodwin v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 2015–02939
    • United States
    • New York Supreme Court Appellate Division
    • December 20, 2017
    ...establishing that it lacked actual or constructive notice of the alleged defective condition (see Johnson v. Nouveau El. Indus., Inc., 38 A.D.3d 611, 612, 831 N.Y.S.2d 527 ), and that it did not fail to use reasonable care to correct a condition of which it should have been aware (see Isaac......
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