1/10/19 – Bonnie Thompson v. Unifirst Corp., et al.

Plaintiff claimed that she sustained serious personal injuries on January 15, 2016, as a result of tripping and falling over a floor mat in the vestibule area of her office building located at 80 Arkay Drive, Hauppauge, NY. Our client, Unifirst Corporation, provided floor mats at the premises. In support of her general negligence claim against Unifirst, the plaintiff claimed that Unifirst’s mats were double stacked on top of each other within the vestibule area and that their improper placement caused plaintiff’s accident.

Prior to the close of discovery, Nicholas V. Ferrara started a third-party action against the plaintiff’s employer, Microchip Technology, alleging that the contractual agreement between Unifirst and Microchip required that Unifirst be indemnified and held harmless from the plaintiff’s underlying claim. Once it was clear that Microchip Technology would not honor the contractual agreement, Mr. Ferrara moved for summary judgment seeking contractual indemnification from the third-party defendant pursuant to CPLR §3212. Mr. Ferrara argued that under the contract Microchip was responsible for any claims which arose out of the use of Unifirst’s merchandise, which included the floor mats at issue. The Court agreed with our arguments and granted our motion for summary judgment granting liability against the third-party defendant and requiring that Microchip Technology indemnify and hold harmless Unifirst from this claim.