WILLIAMS v. City Mall, Inc., Defendant–Appellant. (2020)

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Fernando Tapia, J.), entered May 6, 2019, which, inter alia, upon granting defendant City Mall, Inc.'s motion to renew, adhered to its prior determination granting 2897 defendant Third Avenue LLC's (Third Avenue) motion for partial summary judgment on its cross claim for contractual defense and indemnification against City Mall, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and Third Avenue's motion for partial summary judgment denied.

In this trip and fall action, defendant tenant City Mall's obligations to defend and indemnify defendant landlord Third Avenue are governed by the lease provision concerning contractual indemnification, not the provision regarding insurance procurement. As no evidence was offered by Third Avenue to show any relationship between plaintiff's trip and fall and City Mall's occupancy or lease obligations, denial of Third Avenue's summary judgment motion on its cross claim is warranted (see Prestige Props. & Dev. Co., Inc. v. Montefiore Med. Ctr., 36 A.D.3d 471, 828 N.Y.S.2d 31 [1st Dept. 2007]). Furthermore, City Mall offered evidence that Third Avenue's contractor performed excavation and repair work on the sidewalk just months prior to plaintiff's accident, such as to indicate that Third Avenue might have caused the alleged broken condition of the sidewalk. Where, as here, a question of fact exists regarding an owner's negligence in the cause of an accident, a request for summary judgment on a contractual defense and indemnification claim must be denied as premature (see Barraco v. First Lenox Terrace Assoc., 25 A.D.3d 427, 429, 810 N.Y.S.2d 8 [1st Dept. 2006]; Bellefleur v. Newark Beth Israel Med. Ctr., 66 A.D.3d 807, 888 N.Y.S.2d 81 [2d Dept. 2009]).