| Wright v Riverbay Corp. |
| 2011 NY Slip Op 01599 [82 AD3d 444] |
| March 3, 2011 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| Carl Wright, Respondent, v Riverbay Corporation,Appellant. |
—[*1] Robin G. Neiger, Bronx (Jeffrey Zeichner of counsel), for respondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Patricia Anne Williams, J.), entered August 12,2009, after a jury trial, awarding plaintiff damages, unanimously reversed, on the law, withoutcosts, the judgment vacated, and the matter remanded for a new trial on the issue of whetherplaintiff was comparatively negligent.
Contrary to defendant's objection to the jury charge and the other rulings of the court thatplaced the burden on defendant to show that it did not have notice of the absence of lights in thestairwell, plaintiff's evidence that a lack of illumination in violation of Multiple Dwelling Law§ 37 was a proximate cause of his accident shifted the burden to defendant on the issue ofnotice (see Santiago v New York City Hous. Auth., 268 AD2d 203 [2000]).
Defendant's request for a jury charge on comparative negligence should have been grantedgiven the issue of whether plaintiff should have entered and descended an unlit stairwell underthe facts of this case.
Defendant's remaining arguments concerning various evidentiary rulings and the jury chargeon the Multiple Dwelling Law are unpreserved for appellate review. Concur—Mazzarelli,J.P., Acosta, DeGrasse, Richter and Manzanet-Daniels, JJ.