5/11/23 – Simms v. 16 Bartlett Street LLC.

Plaintiff claimed that he sustained serious personal injuries on January 11, 2015, while walking along a public sidewalk adjacent to 16 Bartlett Street, Brooklyn, NY. Plaintiff maintained that he was injured when walking underneath a sidewalk shed at that location. Specifically, he alleges that he was caused to trip-and-fall on a defective portion of the sidewalk and construction debris. Our client, Silvercup Scaffolding 1, LLC, was hired solely to install the subject sidewalk shed at this location for the purposes of overhead protection.

At the close of discovery Nicholas V. Ferrara moved for summary judgment seeking to dismiss all claims and cross-claims against Silvercup Scaffolding 1, LLC, pursuant to CPLR §3212. Mr. Ferrara argued that there was no legal duty owed to the plaintiff as a pedestrian, by our client, a hired subcontractor. Mr. Ferrara further argued that the only way in which our client could have created such a duty to the plaintiff was by “launching a force or instrument of harm”, or in other words creating the condition which caused or contributed to the plaintiff’s accident. Without any such evidence in the record, following the close of discovery, our client should be entitled to summary judgment. The Court agreed with these arguments and found there was no admissible evidence that Silvercup was actively negligent in creating or causing the plaintiff’s alleged accident. In doing so the Court granted our motion for summary judgment dismissing all claims and cross-claims as to Silvercup.