| LoGiudice v Silverstein Props., Inc. |
| 2008 NY Slip Op 01409 [48 AD3d 286] |
| February 14, 2008 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| Carl LoGiudice, Respondent, v Silverstein Properties, Inc.,et al., Appellants and Third-Party Plaintiffs. American Building Maintenance, Co., Third-PartyDefendant-Appellant. |
—[*1] Dinkes & Schwitzer, P.C., New York City (Souren A. Israelyan of counsel), forrespondent.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Louis B. York, J.), entered December 18, 2006,which, in an action for personal injuries, denied defendants' and third-party defendant's motionfor summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
Summary judgment dismissing the complaint is not warranted even assuming, in favor ofdefendants building owner and management company, that they did not have notice of any defectin the allegedly "curled-up" rain mat over which plaintiff, an employee of third-party defendantbuilding maintenance contractor, tripped upon arriving for work in the early morning, and thatfault for the accident can be ascribed only to third-party defendant, whose night-shift employeeput the mat down before any of defendants' employees had arrived for work. For this buildingthat was open to the public, defendants had a nondelegable duty to provide the public, includingthird-party defendant's employees, with reasonably safe means of ingress and egress, and can beheld vicariously liable for any negligence by third-party defendant that caused the entrance tobecome unsafe (Backiel v Citibank, 299 AD2d 504 [2002]; see generally Kleeman vRheingold, [*2]81 NY2d 270, 274 [1993]). Issues of factexist as to whether, inter alia, the mat made the entrance to the building unsafe.Concur—Andrias, J.P., Friedman, Sweeny and Moskowitz, JJ.