Ryan v Richmond County Yacht Club, Inc.
2011 NY Slip Op 03576 [83 AD3d 1036]
April 26, 2011
Appellate Division, Second Department
As corrected through Wednesday, June 8, 2011


Ronald Ryan, Appellant,
v
Richmond County Yacht Club,Incorporated, Respondent.

[*1]McMahon, Martine & Gallagher, LLP, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Patrick W. Brophy of counsel),for appellant.

Hoey, King, Toker & Epstein (Mischel & Horn, P.C., New York, N.Y. [Scott T. Horn andNaomi M. Taub], of counsel), for respondent.

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the plaintiff appeals from (1) an orderof the Supreme Court, Richmond County (Minardo, J.), dated February 19, 2010, which grantedthe defendant's motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, and (2) so much of anorder of the same court entered July 21, 2010, as denied that branch of his motion which was forleave to renew his opposition to the prior motion.

Ordered that the order dated February 19, 2010, is affirmed; and it is further,

Ordered that the order entered July 21, 2010, is affirmed insofar as appealed from; and it isfurther,

Ordered that one bill of costs is awarded to the defendant.

The complaint alleges that on November 11, 2006, the plaintiff was walking down a hallwayin the premises of the defendant, Richmond County Yacht Club, Incorporated, while carrying acake at waist height, with both hands underneath the cake. The plaintiff failed to see two stepsand fell, injuring himself.

It is axiomatic that a landowner has a duty to maintain his or her premises in a reasonablysafe manner (see Basso v Miller, 40 NY2d 233 [1976]; Bloomfield v Jericho UnionFree School Dist., 80 AD3d 637 [2011]). A landowner has no duty, however, to protect orwarn against conditions that are not inherently dangerous and that are readily observable by thereasonable use of one's senses (see Bloomfield v Jericho Union Free School Dist., 80AD3d at 638, 639; Thomas v Pleasantville Union Free School Dist., 79 AD3d 853[2010], lv denied 16 NY3d 708 [2011]; Groon v Herricks Union Free SchoolDist., 42 AD3d 431 [2007]; Pirie v Krasinski, 18 AD3d 848, 849 [2005]).[*2]

The defendant established its prima facie entitlement tojudgment as a matter of law by demonstrating that the steps which allegedly caused the plaintiffto fall were open and obvious and readily observable by the reasonable use of one's senses, andwere not inherently dangerous (see Thomas v Pleasantville Union Free School Dist., 79AD3d at 854; Groon v Herricks Union Free School Dist., 42 AD3d at 432).

In opposition, the plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact (see generally Alvarez vProspect Hosp., 68 NY2d 320, 324 [1986]).

While the plaintiff presented new evidence in the form of his affidavit in support of thatbranch of his motion which was for leave to renew, a motion for leave to renew should be deniedunless the moving party offers a reasonable justification as to why the new facts were notsubmitted on the prior motion. Here, the plaintiff failed to offer any justification for the failure tohave submitted the affidavit on the prior motion (see CPLR 2221 [e] [2], [3]). Thus, theSupreme Court properly denied that branch of the plaintiff's motion. Angiolillo, J.P., Balkin,Leventhal and Sgroi, 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.