W. was injured when he tripped while entering a freight elevator in a building owned by West Gramercy and managed by other defendants. The elevator maintenance was handled by Nouveau Elevator.
While W. claimed the elevator was misleveled, being five or six inches higher than the lobby floor, his colleague, who was present at the time, did not witness the fall or notice any misleveling.
When the New York County Supreme Court ended up siding with the defendants and dismissed the case (on a motion for summary judgment), an appeal ensued.
On its review, the Appellate Division, First Department, agreed that the defendants had demonstrated that the elevator was not defective and that they had no actual or constructive notice of any defect. Witnesses, including defendants’ employees, testified that they had no knowledge of any misleveling issues or complaints. The building superintendent conducted daily inspections, and no misleveling was reported in the work tickets nor had the Department of Buildings issued any pertinent violations for the two years preceding the accident.
Nouveau Elevator also established that it performed regular maintenance that would have detected any misleveling, and that it had no notice of such a problem. Their mechanic testified that the elevator was functioning correctly during his inspection just days prior to the accident.
The affidavit of W’s expert witness didn’t help his case, as it was viewed as “speculative” and “not based on facts in the record.” While the expert suggested that an oil leak and dirty conditions interfered with the elevator's sensors, those issues had been resolved before the accident.
The AD1 also concluded that the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur -- a presumption of negligence based on the mere occurrence of the accident -- did not apply, as the accident could have occurred without negligence, possibly due to a misstep by the plaintiff. Therefore, the outcome was “unanimously affirmed,” and left undisturbed.
The poor guy's case got leveled ....
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DECISION