JONES v. CITY OF NEW YORK (2025)

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Mitchell J. Danziger, J.), entered December 22, 2023, which granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Defendants established prima facie entitlement to summary judgment by submitting affidavits of Department of Transportation and Department of Environmental Protection record searchers regarding the results of the two-year searches they performed of the pertinent electronic databases for those agencies, which showed that they did not receive prior written notice or receive any complaints of the defect in the catch basin upon which plaintiff tripped and fell (see Hued v. City of New York, 170 A.D.3d 571, 571, 97 N.Y.S.3d 50 [1st Dept. 2019];  Harvey v. Henry 85 LLC, 171 A.D.3d 531, 531–532, 98 N.Y.S.3d 75 [1st Dept. 2019], lv denied 33 N.Y.3d 911, 2019 WL 4200649 [2019];  Jones v. City of New York, 159 A.D.3d 571, 571–572, 70 N.Y.S.3d 45 [1st Dept. 2018]).

In opposition, plaintiff failed to raise a question of fact as to whether defendants had prior written notice, or that an exception to the notice requirement applied to the accident (see Correa v. Mana Constr. Group Ltd., 192 A.D.3d 555, 146 N.Y.S.3d 5 [1st Dept. 2021];  Flynn v. City of New York, 154 A.D.3d 488, 488, 61 N.Y.S.3d 483 [1st Dept. 2017]).

We have considered plaintiff's remaining arguments and find them unavailing.