McDowell v Xand Holdings, LLC |
2019 NY Slip Op 03908 [172 AD3d 547] |
May 21, 2019 |
Appellate Division, First Department |
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. |
Alfred McDowell, Plaintiff, v Xand Holdings, LLC, Respondent, and JCI Construction Corporation, Appellant, et al., Defendant. |
Congdon, Flaherty, O'Callaghan, Reid, Donlon, Travis & Fishlinger, Uniondale (Kathleen D. Foley of counsel), for appellant.
Weiser & McCarthy, New York (David P. Weiser of counsel), for respondent.
Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Fernando Tapia, J.), entered on or about October 30, 2018, which, to the extent appealed from as limited by the briefs, denied JCI Construction Corporation's (JCI) motion for summary judgment, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The court properly found issues of fact as to whether JCI launched a force or instrument of harm while performing its contract at the construction site (see generally Espinal v Melville Snow Contrs., 98 NY2d 136, 140 [2002]). The testimony of JCI's principal, viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff, raised an issue of fact as to whether JCI met its alleged oral obligations to place caution tape around, or plywood over, the trench it contracted to excavate, into which plaintiff fell (see Farrugia v 1440 Broadway Assoc., 163 AD3d 452, 453 [1st Dept 2018]; cf. Miller v City of New York, 100 AD3d 561 [1st Dept 2012]).
Moreover, there are triable issues of fact as to whether plaintiff's conduct of walking to the edge of the trench, where he lost his footing and fell, was the sole proximate cause of his accident, as the record does not permit resolution as a matter of law of whether the hazard was open and obvious (see Farrugia, 163 AD3d at 455).
We have considered JCI's remaining claims and find them unavailing. Concur—Acosta, P.J., Richter, Manzanet-Daniels, Webber, Kern, JJ.