SOCORRO v. NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN WEILL CORNELL MEDICAL CENTER (2018)

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Ellen M. Coin, J.), entered April 7, 2017, which, in this action for personal injuries sustained when plaintiff slipped and fell on a puddle of water in defendant's emergency room, denied defendant's motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Defendant failed to sustain its prima facie burden of showing that it did not create or have notice of the puddle of water in front of a nurses' station in the emergency room.  Although its operations manager testified to general cleaning and inspection procedures, he did not state that they were followed on the day of the accident, did not know if he worked that day, and did not know when the area was last inspected (see Sada v. August Wilson Theater, 140 A.D.3d 574, 33 N.Y.S.3d 690 [1st Dept. 2016];  Dylan P. v. Webster Place Assoc., L.P., 132 A.D.3d 537, 18 N.Y.S.3d 42 [1st Dept. 2015], affd 27 N.Y.3d 1055, 35 N.Y.S.3d 292, 54 N.E.3d 1163 [2016] ).

Defendant's argument that plaintiff's negligence was the sole proximate cause of the accident in that she admitted that she saw the puddle several times before she fell, is unavailing.  Plaintiff testified that she did not see the water immediately prior to the fall as she was looking straight ahead.  Plaintiff did not deliberately undertake a course of action severing the nexus between defendant's alleged negligence and her injury (Abreu v. New York City Hous. Auth., 104 A.D.3d 522, 961 N.Y.S.2d 400 [1st Dept. 2013] ).  Plaintiff's prior awareness of the water condition does not require dismissal of the complaint because it is relevant only to the issue of her comparative negligence (see Johnson–Glover v. Fu Jun Hao Inc., 138 A.D.3d 499, 28 N.Y.S.3d 304 [1st Dept. 2016] ).