Associate Edward Lomena obtained the dismissal of a Queens County, NY premises liability case. In Collins v. Top Notch Construction, the plaintiff allegedly sustained injuries when he tripped and fell in front of his home on April 20, 2005. The plaintiff claimed that Top Notch Construction negligently left construction debris and loose planks on the exterior front stoop landing and common area. The plaintiff passed away in 2006 and the matter was stayed so that an administrator could be appointed and substituted as the plaintiff.

No administrator was ever appointed. As such, we moved to dismiss the action for failure to substitute in a timely manner. The decedent’s wife opposed the motion on the grounds that it was her intention to be appointed and continue on with the action. Notwithstanding her opposition, the trial court granted the motion and dismissed the complaint, holding that her delay in seeking the substitution was unreasonable.

WCM Awarded Summary Judgment in New York County, NY Premises Liability Case.

Associate Edward Lomena was awarded summary judgment in a New York County property damage case. In Sherle Wagner v. Consolidated Edison of New York, Inc., MECC Contracting Inc., the plaintiff, a manufacturer of high-end bathroom fixtures, allegedly sustained $7,000,000 in property damage as the result of a flood in its show room. The damage was the result of water and oil entering a Con Edison vault located on the sidewalk outside of the building and a faulty sump pump in the vault. The plaintiff claimed that work that MECC performed in the roadway a month prior to the incident may have caused debris to build up in the vault, which thereafter caused the pump to malfunction.

At the close of discovery, we moved for summary judgment on the grounds that MECC did not cause or create the condition that resulted in the plaintiff’s property damage, and there was no nexus between the work MECC did in the roadway and the failure of the sump pump in the transformer vault. The trial court agreed with our analysis and dismissed the plaintiff’s claims against MECC.