BERGER v. NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT AUTHORITY (2024)

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Denise M. Dominguez, J.), entered on or about September 7, 2023, which denied plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff sustained injuries when she became pinned between the doors of a subway car, which closed on her as she attempted to disembark the train.  Even if plaintiff made a prima facie showing of entitlement to judgment as a matter of law on her negligence claim, defendants raised issues of fact which precluded the granting of summary judgment (see Smigielski v. Teachers Ins. & Annuity Assn. of Am., 137 A.D.3d 676, 29 N.Y.S.3d 272 [1st Dept. 2016]).  For instance, while plaintiff stated in her affidavit and her deposition that the doors closed on her less than three seconds after they opened, her 50–h hearing testimony indicated that the doors had been open for five minutes before the accident.

Additionally, defendants submitted an expert affidavit concluding that the accident could not have occurred as plaintiff described because, by design, the train car doors would have automatically reopened after making contact with her.  Although plaintiff's expert stated that this automatic feature could be modified, this merely raised an issue of fact for the jury (see Lucas v. New York City Tr. Auth., 163 A.D.2d 21, 22, 557 N.Y.S.2d 919 [1st Dept. 1990], lv denied 77 N.Y.2d 807, 569 N.Y.S.2d 611, 572 N.E.2d 52 [1991]).