GOODSON v. 99 (2024)

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Naita A. Semaj, J.), entered September 21, 2023, which, insofar as appealed from, granted the motion of defendant Steph–Leigh Associates, LLC for summary judgment dismissing the complaint as against it, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Steph–Leigh Associates, LLC (defendant) established its prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law, where plaintiff tripped and fell over a raised door saddle at the entrance of the premises owned by defendant, and plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact.  Defendant showed that it was an out-of-possession landlord with no duty to maintain and repair the entrance under the lease agreement, which assigned such responsibility to the tenant and granted defendant only a limited right of re-entry to repair the premises contingent on the tenant's failure to do so (see Kittay v. Moskowitz, 95 A.D.3d 451, 452, 944 N.Y.S.2d 497 [1st Dept. 2012], lv denied 20 N.Y.3d 859, 2013 WL 518556 [2013]).  Furthermore, the door saddle was not structural in nature (see Paniagua v. Bridge Food Ctr. Corp., 59 A.D.3d 356, 357, 874 N.Y.S.2d 433 [1st Dept. 2009]), and plaintiff failed to allege any violation of a specific statutory provision (see Joyner v. Mingles Cafe, Inc., 115 A.D.3d 560, 561, 982 N.Y.S.2d 118 [1st Dept. 2014]).

We have considered plaintiff's remaining contentions, including that defendant had constructive notice of the raised door saddle, and find them unavailing.