Vitanza v. Growth Realties, Inc.
| Decision Date | 11 January 1983 |
| Citation | 457 N.Y.S.2d 544,91 A.D.2d 917 |
| Parties | Daniel VITANZA, as Administrator of the Estate of Josephine Vitanza, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. GROWTH REALTIES, INC., et al., Defendants-Respondents. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
M.H. Ellerin, New York City, for plaintiff-appellant.
I. Wolff, New York City, for defendants-respondents.
Before KUPFERMAN, J.P., and SANDLER, CARRO, ASCH and FEIN, JJ.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County entered January 20, 1982 dismissing the complaint on the merits, unanimously reversed on the law, the complaint reinstated, and the case remanded for a new trial, with costs to abide the event.
This is an action to recover damages for personal injuries and wrongful death arising out of a fall by plaintiff's decedent, a woman of advanced years, on a stairway in a building in which she resided. The wrongful death action is based on the theory that a second fall, some months later, resulting in decedent's death, was caused by the effects of the injuries sustained in the fall in issue.
Evidence was introduced in behalf of the plaintiff that the stairway in question was seriously and pervasively defective, and that the landlord had received ample notice of the defective condition and had failed to correct it. Plaintiff, the decedent's son, testified that he examined the stairway some hours after the event, and observed that the metal edge of at least 10 of the 19 steps were loose, that some steps were curved, and that nails were sticking out of some of them. However, the single witness to the event had not observed the start of the fall, and was accordingly unable to identify the step from which the decedent fell. The Trial Court dismissed the complaint after the plaintiff completed its case on the view that the evidence was insufficient as a matter of law to establish that the defective condition of the stairway caused the fall.
We disagree and accordingly reverse the judgment dismissing the complaint, reinstate the complaint, and remand the case for a new trial.
The issue presented is legally indistinguishable from that addressed in Gramm v. State of New York, 28 A.D.2d 787, 281 N.Y.S.2d 235, aff'd 21 N.Y.2d 1025, 291 N.Y.S.2d 7, 238 N.E.2d 498. Responding to a similar argument that an action must fail where the plaintiff was unable to establish the condition of the stair from which she fell in a stairway that was wet and littered with cigarette butts and paper...
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Haibi v. 790 Riverside Drive Owners, Inc.
...that result in fact has followed, the conclusion may be permissible that the causal relation exists" ( Vitanza v. Growth Realties, 91 A.D.2d 917, 917, 457 N.Y.S.2d 544 [1st Dept.1983] [internal quotation marks omitted] ). In this case, the dangerous condition of the stairway and the deceden......
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Tompa v. 767 Fifth Partners, LLC
...evidence or common knowledge may provide a basis from which the causal sequence may be inferred” (Vitanza v. Growth Realties, 91 A.D.2d 917, 917, 457 N.Y.S.2d 544 [1st Dept.1983] [internal quotation marks and citation omitted] ). There is sufficient evidence, including the climatological da......
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Bowles v. Litton Industries, Inc., Monroe Systems for Business Div., 87-CA-315
...fanciful suppositions. The whole tendency of the evidence connects the accident with the [defect].' Accord, Vitanza v. Growth Realties, Inc., 91 A.D.2d 917, 457 N.Y.S.2d 544 (1983). See also W. Prosser, Torts, [3d ed.] Sec. 41, p. 246; Carter v. City-Parish Government, etc., 423 So.2d 1080 ......
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Bettencourt v. Pride Well Service, Inc.
...that the absence of adequate lighting well may have prevented McGowen from witnessing Bettencourt's fall. In Vitanza v. Growth Realties, Inc., 91 A.D.2d 917, 457 N.Y.S.2d 544 (1983), the court rejected an argument by defendant that as a matter of law the evidence was insufficient to establi......