| Torres v Washington Hgts. Bus. Improvement Dist. Mgt. Assn.,Inc. |
| 2008 NY Slip Op 09442 [57 AD3d 214] |
| December 2, 2008 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| Mariette Torres, Appellant, v Washington HeightsBusiness Improvement District Management Association, Inc.,Respondent. |
—[*1] Fiedelman & McGaw, Jericho (Ross P. Masler of counsel), for respondent.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Leland G. DeGrasse, J.), entered May 22, 2007,which granted defendant's motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimouslyaffirmed, without costs.
Summary dismissal was properly granted in this matter where plaintiff was injured when shetripped on a plastic bag during a street fair that was hosted and sponsored by defendant. Althoughdefendant, as a licensee who obtained permission to use the designated streets to sponsor andhost the fair, owed a duty of care to maintain the area in a reasonably safe condition (see Maheshwari v City of New York, 2NY3d 288, 294 [2004]), the evidence demonstrates that defendant established its entitlementto summary judgment by showing that it had no constructive notice of the defective condition (see Smith v Costco Wholesale Corp.,50 AD3d 499 [2008]). The general awareness of litter in the streets is insufficient to raise atriable issue as to whether defendant had constructive notice of the plastic bag that causedplaintiff's fall (see Gordon v American Museum of Natural History, 67 NY2d 836, 838[1986]; Melendez v New York CityHous. Auth., 23 AD3d 211 [2005]). Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Saxe, Catterson,Renwick and Freedman, JJ.