In Desthers v. Espinal, the Second Department upheld the lower court’s summary judgment finding in favor of the defendant in a case that dealt with General Municipal Law § 205-a.  Under General Municipal Law § 205-a, firefighters who are injured as a result of any neglect, omission, willful or culpable negligence of the defendant in failing to comply with the requirements of any of the statutes, ordinances, rules, orders and requirements of the federal, state, county, village, town or city governments have the right the sue a premises owner for injuries resulting from reporting to a fire.

Here, the plaintiff was a New York City Firefighter who was injured while responding to a fire at the defendant’s residence.   The plaintiff fell off a scuttle ladder when it detached from the wall.  The Second Department held that the defendant was entitled to summary judgment because the defendant did not create or have knowledge of the alleged defect.  The plaintiff also failed to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether the alleged violations of the Administrative Code of the City of New York were the result of some neglect, omission, or culpable negligence on the defendant’s part.

This case is a hallmark decision because injured firefighters often allege a myriad of City codes and recover under General Municipal Law § 205-a if the court finds that the defendant violated even one of the alleged codes.  However, recent decisions like Desthers have demonstrated that even though there was a violation of an Administrative Code, since the defendant did not create the condition or have notice of it, plaintiff could not prevail under General Municipal Law § 205-a.

Thanks to Moya O’Connor for her contribution to this post.  For any questions please contact ">