Hadgraft v Morin
2012 NY Slip Op 02455 [94 AD3d 701]
April 3, 2012
Appellate Division, Second Department
As corrected through Wednesday, May 23, 2012


Nancy Hadgraft et al., Appellants,
v
Paul Morin et al.,Respondents.

[*1]Carl Maltese, Smithtown, N.Y. (Stanford Kaplan of counsel), for appellants.

Farber Brocks & Zane, LLP, Mineola, N.Y. (Braden H. Farber and Tracy L. Frankel ofcounsel), for respondents.

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, etc., the plaintiffs appeal from an orderof the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (Martin, J.), dated January 13, 2011, which granted thedefendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint.

Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, with costs, and the defendants' motion forsummary judgment dismissing the complaint is denied.

Contrary to the Supreme Court's determination, the plaintiff Nancy Hadgraft (hereinafter theinjured plaintiff) was able to identify the cause of her fall on the night of the subject accident asher inability to see the small single-step riser on the walkway she was traversing on thedefendants' premises.

Furthermore, the defendants failed to meet their initial burden of establishing their primafacie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law, as a triable issue of fact existed as to whetherthe area near the single-step riser was sufficiently lit on the night of the accident and whether thesingle-step riser was open and obvious and not inherently dangerous (see Kempter v Horton, 33 AD3d868 [2006]).

Accordingly, the Supreme Court should have denied the defendants' motion for summaryjudgment dismissing the complaint. Florio, J.P., Lott, Sgroi and Miller, JJ., concur.


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