| McFadden v Village of Ossining |
| 2008 NY Slip Op 01720 [48 AD3d 761] |
| February 26, 2008 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
| Adriana McFadden et al., Respondents, v Village ofOssining, Appellant, et al., Defendant. (And Another Title.) |
—[*1] Bashian & Farber, LLP, White Plains, N.Y. (Irving O. Farber of counsel), for respondentsAdriana McFadden and Patricia McFadden, and Silverman, Bikkal & Sandberg LLP, WhitePlains, N.Y., for respondent Thelma McFadden (one brief filed).
In a consolidated action to recover damages for personal injuries, etc., the defendant Villageof Ossining appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Donovan, J.),entered September 10, 2007, which denied its motion for summary judgment dismissing thecomplaint insofar as asserted against it.
Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, with costs, and the motion by the Village ofOssining for summary judgment dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against it isgranted.
The plaintiff Thelma McFadden was crossing South Highland Avenue in the appellantVillage of Ossining, while holding her 14-month old granddaughter, the infant plaintiff AdrianaMcFadden, against her hip, when they were struck by a motor vehicle owned by Thomas P.Barone and operated by Shannon Davey. The plaintiffs maintain that the accident wasproximately caused by negligence on the part of the Village in placing a sign in the middle of theroadway on South Highland Avenue, in the vicinity of the accident, warning motorists to "Yieldto Pedestrians in Crosswalk," which led McFadden to believe that it was safe to cross at thatlocation, even though no crosswalk was present at that location.
The evidence which the Village submitted in support of its motion for summary judgment[*2]dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against itestablished its prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law that any negligence on itspart in the placement of the sign was not the proximate cause of the accident (see Alvarez vProspect Hosp., 68 NY2d 320, 324 [1986]; Granados v Cox, 43 AD3d 391 [2007]).The evidence submitted by the Village established that Thelma McFadden simply chose to crossat the center of the roadway, near the Ossining Children's Center, which her granddaughterattended, a point where there was no crosswalk or traffic device affording her the right-of-way.
The affidavit submitted by the plaintiffs' engineering expert in opposition to the motion,concluding that the foregoing sign, which preceded the site of the accident, tended to confuseboth pedestrians and drivers was speculative, conclusory, and failed to raise a triable issue of fact(see Exime v Williams, 45 AD3d 633, 634 [2007]). Further, the averment in theplaintiff's affidavit that she was confused by the sign in the middle of the roadway presented afeigned issue of fact (see Nieves v JHH Transp., LLC, 40 AD3d 1060 [2007]), since shetestified at her deposition that she was not sure of the nature of the complaint which she allegedlymade to the Village. Spolzino, J.P., Florio, Angiolillo and Dickerson, JJ., concur.