Personal Injury

No Duty Of Care While Freezing Rain Still In The Air (PA)

A Pennsylvania trial court granted summary judgment in a premises liability case where the plaintiff slipped and fell during an ongoing storm of rain and freezing rain, thereby reaffirming that a property owner has no obligation to remove all of the ice from its premises while the icy precipitation continued to fall.  In  Nunez v. Johnson & Johnson, Henry Nunez was employed by Allied...Read More

Sanctions Or A Slap-On-The-Wrist? (NY)

In Castillo v. Charles (2022 NY Slip Op 06103), an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the Appellate Division Second Department, department modified the lower courts order striking the plaintiff’s pleadings, as it was “too drastic of a remedy”  (see Turiano v. Schwaber, 180 AD3d 950, 952; see also Arpino v. F.J.F. & Sons Elec. Co., Inc., 102 AD3d at 211). Here, plaintiff...Read More

Court Dismisses Defamation Suit Stemming From Negative Google Review (NY)

This past week, in DeRicco v Maidman, the First Department of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York reversed a trial court decision that denied a defendant patient’s motion to dismiss an orthodontist’s defamation claims against them.  The claims were brought by the orthodontist and his professional corporation against the patient and his parents after the parents posted an...Read More

Readily Observable (NY)

In a recent decision, Williams v. E And R Jamaica Food Corp., the Second Department held that ” a condition is open and obvious if it is ‘readily observable by those employing the reasonable use of their senses, given the conditions at the time of the accident.” The Appellate Court granted defendant’s appeal in matter where plaintiff sustained personal injuries as a result of...Read More

Burden On Defense In Multi-Accident Injuries To Prove Separate Causation (NJ)

In a recent case in the New Jersey Appellate Division, the court held that when there are claims stemming from multiple car accidents, the burden is on the defense to prove that the resulting injuries were not caused solely by the accident in which they are the defendant, rather they must demonstrate that there are multiple different causes for the injuries. In 2015, the Plaintiff was involved...Read More

Plaintiff Is Not Entitled To 24-hour Security Camera Footage (PA)

The E.D.P.A in Dietzel v. Costco Wholesale ruled that plaintiff Dietzel was not entitled to the defendant’s Costco Wholesale’s security camera footage, unless the footage actually captured Dietzel’s accident. This case was centered on Dietzel’s trip and fall that occurred as he tried to enter a Costco location in North Wales, Pennsylvania. During discovery, Costco claimed that the alleged fall...Read More

Drivers Have Duty to Yield to Pedestrians in Cross Walks Despite Driver’s Green Light (NY)

In Perez v. Bobcar Media LLC and Benny M. Cohen, the Kings County Supreme Court of New York confirmed that a driver of a motor-vehicle has a statutory duty to use due care to avoid colliding with a pedestrian, including yielding to the right-of-way to pedestrians lawfully within a crosswalk despite a driver’s green light. Both parties following discovery moved for summary judgment: the...Read More

Video Surveillance Leaves Questions For The Jury (NY)

Even though video surveillance showed the plaintiff switching lanes in front of defendant’s bus at the same time as defendant, the Appellate Division still found there to be several issues of fact in a recent New York case. In Fergile v. Payne, plaintiff was riding a motor scooter in the right lane of traffic. Defendant bus driver was also traveling in the right lane, behind plaintiff. As the...Read More

Claim Of Injury On A City Bus Fails To Take Off From The Ground (NY)

In this week’s review, we study a quirky case where a plaintiff sued the MTA Bus Company because she sustained serious injury when she fell from a sudden and violent stop on a New York City bus. (Who among us has not been in this common situation at one point while living in New York City.) In Orji v. MTA Bus Co., NY Slip Op 02811 (2d Dept. 2022), the plaintiff alleged the city bus stopped at...Read More

Vicarious Liability Found In A Motorcycle Accident By Off-Duty Cop (NY)

In Llorente v. Wnorowski, 2022 NY Slip Op 02258 (2d Dept. 2022), the plaintiff was riding a motorcycle on the Grand Central Parkway when it collided with another motorcycle operated by the defendant Wnorowski, an off-duty police officer at the time, who was riding with other off-duty police officers on motorcycles. The plaintiff commenced a personal injury action against him and against his...Read More