Pfleshinger v. Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Barry Salman, J.), entered on or about April 8, 2015, which denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and the motion granted. The Clerk is directed to enter judgment accordingly.

Defendants established entitlement to judgment as a matter of law, in this action where plaintiff alleges that she was injured when, while standing and riding on defendants’ bus, the bus stopped suddenly causing her to fall and strike her head. Defendants submitted evidence showing that the bus was traveling between five and seven miles per hour, that it was not operated in a negligent manner, and that no other passengers who were standing fell when the bus stopped.

In opposition, plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact. Other than alleging that the bus “stopped short,” plaintiff failed to provide “objective evidence of the force of the stop sufficient to establish an inference that the stop was extraordinary and violent, of a different class than the jerks and jolts commonly experienced in city bus travel and, therefore, attributable to the negligence of defendant” (Urquhart v New York City Tr. Auth., 85 NY2d 828, 830 [1995]; see Tallant v Grey Line N.Y. Tours, Inc., 67 AD3d 497 [1st Dept 2009]; Gioulis v MTA Bus Co., 94 AD3d 811 [2d Dept 2012]).