Landlord Not Responsible for Slip-and-Fall in Stairway

Tenant’s home health care worker sued landlord for negligence after she slipped and fell in a building staircase. She claimed that she slipped on white powder that was all over the stairs. Landlord asked the court to dismiss the case without a trial. The court refused, finding that there was some question of fact about whether landlord knew or should have known about the condition.

Landlord appealed and won. In pretrial questioning, the building super stated that he swept the stairs every morning between 8:00 and 8:30 and that he never saw any white powder. In her own pretrial questioning, the worker didn’t even state that the powder was the cause of her fall. She simply said that she slipped and saw that there was white powder at various locations in the stairwell. She didn’t say that she actually slipped on the powder. Landlord sufficiently showed that it didn’t create or know about any hazardous condition, and the worker failed to present a question of fact warranting a trial.

Raghu v. NYCHA: NYLJ, 4/12/10, p. 27, col. 4 (App. Div. 1 Dept.; Tom, JP, Andrias, Friedman, Nardelli, Catterson, JJ)