New York, NY

Associate Lora H. Gleicher was awarded summary judgment in a Westchester County, NY premises liability case. In the case of Salvati v. Marriott, the plaintiff allegedly sustained injuries when an umbrella struck her head while dining outdoors at a Marriott located in Arizona. Plaintiff claimed that Marriott negligently permitted an umbrella to be left open during unsafe weather conditions, failed to secure the umbrella to prevent it from becoming hazardous and failed to warn plaintiff about the alleged hazardous condition.

At the close of discovery, we moved for summary judgment based on the fact that Marriott did not create or have notice – constructive or actual – of the allegedly hazardous condition that caused the umbrella to strike plaintiff’s head. Namely, Marriott was not aware of the allegedly hazardous wind condition that caused the subject umbrella to strike plaintiff. The trial court agreed with our analysis and thus dismissed the plaintiff’s complaint, nothing that Marriott was not responsible for the unpredictably of the weather.