In an appellate decision dated May 19, 2015, the First Department unanimously overturned a Supreme Court, Bronx County order that denied our client’s summary judgment motion and dismissed plaintiff’s complaint in its entirety. Plaintiff allegedly fell in a sinkhole surrounding a fire hydrant in front of our client’s apartment building. The City was in the process of repairing the hydrant and the surrounding sidewalk and left a temporary blacktop in place of the concrete that had surrounded the hydrant. In reversing and dismissing the plaintiff’s complaint, the Appellate Division found that because the City was performing work on the fire hydrant, which work entailed placing blacktop on the surrounding sidewalk, it exercised control over that area during the pendency of its work, to the exclusion of the owners. Thus, the Administrative Code requirement that our client maintain the sidewalk did not serve as a predicate for liability under the circumstances of this case.

Arzeno v. City of New York, Anvernic LLC, et al., 128 A.D.3d 527, 10 N.Y.S.3d 198 (1st Dep’t 2015)