RAMOS v. COOPER INVESTORS INC (2008)

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the plaintiff appeals, as limited by her brief, from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Weiss, J.), dated July 31, 2006, as granted those branches of the defendants' motion which were for summary judgment dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against the defendants Cooper Investors, Inc., Flushing Center, Inc., and Flushing Center, Inc., d/b/a Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel.

ORDERED that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.

The plaintiff tripped and fell when she failed to notice a curb separating the walkway area in front of the defendants' hotel and an adjacent roadway.   After the plaintiff commenced the present action, the defendants moved for summary judgment, inter alia, dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against the defendants Cooper Investors, Inc., Flushing Center, Inc., and Flushing Center, Inc., d/b/a Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel (hereinafter collectively the respondents).   The Supreme Court properly granted those branches of the motion which were for summary judgment dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against the respondents.

 “A landowner has no duty to warn of conditions that are not inherently dangerous and ‘that are readily observable by the reasonable use of one's senses' ” (Pirie v. Krasinski, 18 A.D.3d 848, 849, 796 N.Y.S.2d 671, quoting Pedersen v. Kar, Ltd., 283 A.D.2d 625, 625-626, 724 N.Y.S.2d 776).   The respondents established their prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law by tendering evidence that the height differential between the walkway and the roadway was both open and obvious and not inherently dangerous (see Pirie v. Krasinski, 18 A.D.3d at 849, 796 N.Y.S.2d 671;  Behar v. All Seasons Motor Lodge, 6 A.D.3d 639, 775 N.Y.S.2d 183).

In opposition, the plaintiff failed to submit evidence sufficient to raise a triable issue of fact (see Winegrad v. New York Univ. Med. Ctr., 64 N.Y.2d 851, 487 N.Y.S.2d 316, 476 N.E.2d 642;  Behar v. All Seasons Motor Lodge, 6 A.D.3d at 640, 775 N.Y.S.2d 183).