NEEDED TO SHOW THEY HAD EXERCISED “REASONABLE CARE”
After he was injured in a gas explosion, A.F. filed a personal-injury lawsuit against National Grid Energy Services, LLC, National Grid Generation, LLC, and Brooklyn Union Gas Company. And when they later moved for summary judgment – a pre-trial determination in their favor – the Queens County Supreme Court ended up denying that request, and an appeal ensued.
On its review, the Appellate Division, Second Department, could discern no irregularity with that outcome.
Among other things, the AD2 noted that utility companies were liable “for injuries caused by its negligence in the installation or maintenance of [their] system.” And that they were required to exercise “that degree of caution which is reasonably necessary to prevent the escape or explosion of gas from [their] pipes and equipment.”
Since there were “triable issues of fact,” as to whether the defendants had been “negligent in the maintenance of their gas system that serviced the subject premises and whether that negligence was a proximate cause of the plaintiff's injuries,” and because they had not unequivocally established the use of “reasonable care in their handling and distribution of natural gas to the premises leading up to an explosion,” the AD2 affirmed the underlying determination.
Did they run out of gas there?
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DECISION