HAXHAJ v. The Central Park Conservancy, Defendant-Respondent. (2009)

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Marilyn Shafer, J.), entered May 5, 2008, which granted the motion of defendant Central Park Conservancy (CPC) to set aside the verdict, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiffs were unable to show that defendant City, whose duty to maintain its roads and highways in a reasonably safe condition is nondelegable (see Lopes v. Rostad, 45 N.Y.2d 617, 623 [1978]; McAllen v. City of New York, 270 A.D.2d 43 [2000] ), had prior written notice of the alleged defect in the pathway (Administrative Code § 7-201[c] ), or that either defendant had created the defect through its own affirmative negligence. They further failed to demonstrate that any circumstances exist under which CPC, a contractor, could have owed a duty of care to them (see Espinal v. Melville Snow Contrs., 98 N.Y.2d 136, 138 [2002] ). The agreement between the defendants did not indicate that CPC assumed any duty of the City to maintain the premises in a safe condition.

We have considered plaintiffs' remaining contentions and find them unavailing.