Fox v Watermill Enters., Inc.
2005 NYSlipOp 04534
June 6, 2005
Appellate Division, Second Department
As corrected through Wednesday, August 24, 2005


Louis J. Fox et al., Respondents,
v
Watermill Enterprises, Inc., et al., Appellants, et al., Defendants. (And a Third-Party Action.)

[*1]

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, etc., the defendants Watermill Enterprises, Inc., doing business as Watermill Inn, Scotto's Smithtown Restaurant Corp., doing business as Watermill, Scotto's Smithtown Restaurant Corp., doing business as Café Bravissimo, and Katsaros Brothers Realty, LLC, appeal, as limited by their brief, from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (Tanenbaum, J.), dated April 13, 2004, as denied their motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against them.

Ordered that the order is reversed insofar as appealed from, on the law, with costs, the motion is granted, the complaint is dismissed insofar as asserted against the appellants, and the action against the remaining defendants is severed.

The plaintiff Louis J. Fox allegedly was injured when he tripped and fell on a step while descending a stairway at the appellants' restaurant. The appellants made a prima facie showing of entitlement to judgment as a matter of law by submitting Fox's deposition testimony that he did not know what caused him to trip and fall (see Sanchez v City of New York, 305 AD2d 487 [2003]; Hartman v Mountain Val. Brew Pub, 301 AD2d 570 [2003]). In opposition, the plaintiffs submitted the affidavit of an engineering expert whose opinion that the accident was proximately caused by the [*2]appellants' negligence was, among other things, conclusory and failed to raise a triable issue of fact (see Rosario v Trump Mgt., 7 AD3d 504 [2004]). Cozier, J.P., Ritter, Krausman and Skelos, JJ., concur.


NYPTI Decisions © 2026 is a project of New York Prosecutors Training Institute (NYPTI) made possible by leveraging the work we've done providing online research and tools to prosecutors.

NYPTI would like to thank New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, New York State Senate's Open Legislation Project, New York State Unified Court System, New York State Law Reporting Bureau and Free Law Project for their invaluable assistance making this project possible.

Install the free RECAP extensions to help contribute to this archive. See https://free.law/recap/ for more information.