Rupp v. City of Port Jervis
Opinion of the Court
Ordered that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.
The appellant contends that it cannot be held liable for the alleged sidewalk defect since it did not receive written notice of the defect prior to the occurrence as required by Port Jervis City Charter § Cll-2. In support of its motion, the appellant submitted, inter alia, an unnotarized, undated statement from the City Clerk, stating that he “conducted a search of records maintained by the City with respect to any written complaints or written notice pertaining to any alleged defective sidewalk condition or the need for repairs at the location now given as 24-32 Front Street in the City of Port Jervis” for the period prior to the accident, “and found that none exists.” This statement was insufficient to establish the appellant’s entitlement to judgment as a matter of law on the issue of notice (see Winegrad v New York Univ. Med. Ctr., 64 NY2d 851 [1985]; Clarke v Brooklyn Union Gas Co., 297 AD2d 779 [2002]).
In any event, the plaintiffs argued that an exception to the prior written notice rule applies on the ground that the appellant created the allegedly defective condition (see Amabile v City of Buffalo, 93 NY2d 471, 474 [1999]). Under the particular facts of this case, summary judgment on this issue would have been premature since substantial discovery remained outstanding (see CPLR 3212 [f]; Rengifo v City of New York, 7 AD3d 773 [2004]; Yadgarov v Dekel, 2 AD3d 631 [2003]).
In addition, the Supreme Court properly granted the plaintiffs
The appellant’s remaining contentions are without merit. Ritter, J.P., Goldstein, Mastro and Fisher, JJ., concur.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.