Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1996

Alessi v. Zapolsky

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York · Decided June 17, 1996

228 A.D.2d 531; 644 N.Y.2d 549; 644 N.Y.S.2d 549; 1996 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7166

Cases that cite this one

14 later published cases cite this decision.

James v. City of New Rochelle (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2001)
Winberry v. City of New York (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1999)
Winberry v. City of New York (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1999)
Price v. County of Suffolk (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2004)
Rene v. Union Gardens Cooperative (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2002)
Cahill v. Foodland Deli of L.I., Inc. (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2000)
Quinn v. City of New York (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2000)
Waldron v. City of New York (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1999)
Vitale v. Shop & Save Mini Mart (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1999)
Reeb v. Selnes (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1999)
Oathout v. Soiefer Bros. Realty Corp. (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1998)
Castro v. Village of Dobbs Ferry (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1998)
Rubenstein v. DeGeorgio (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1997)
Apolito v. Frosdick (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1997)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion of the Court

The plaintiffs alleged in their pleadings that the infant-plaintiff was caused to fall from his skateboard and thereby sustain serious injuries as a result of a defect in the sidewalk abutting the defendants’ home. The law is well settled that an abutting landowner will not be liable to a person passing by on a public sidewalk unless the landowner created the defective condition or caused the defect to occur because of some special use, or unless a statute or ordinance placed the obligation to maintain the sidewalk upon him or her and imposed tort liability for failure to do so (see, Lodato v Town of Oyster Bay, 68 AD2d 904).

The plaintiffs have failed to raise a triable issue of fact (see, *532CPLR 3212 [b]) as to whether the defendants created the defect, whether the defect arose because of the defendants’ special use of the sidewalk as a driveway, or whether the defendant breached a statutory duty to maintain the sidewalk. Bracken, J. P., Miller, Joy, Hart and Krausman, JJ., concur.

Case-law data current through September 30, 2026. Source: CourtListener bulk data.