09/03/2026
Congratulations to Partner Joseph Charchalis for securing summary judgment on liability for our client, a real estate holding entity, in a case venued in Suffolk County, Supreme Court. In this case, which sought recovery for alleged damages arising from a slip-and-fall on ice, the plaintiff, a school bus driver, alleged that she fell in the parking lot of a commercial property owned by our client and leased to her employer. Plaintiff alleged that inadequate stormwater drainage and defective pavement caused water to pool and freeze, forming the ice. First, the Court agreed with Mr. Charchalis that our client was an out-of-possession landlord that did not create the alleged condition and had no notice of it, finding that the lease placed sole responsibility for snow and ice removal along with all maintenance of the premises upon the tenant. Next, the Court held that plaintiff could not impose liability based on a reserved right of reentry, as plaintiff failed to identify any significant structural or design defect violating a specific statutory provision. Finally, the Court rejected plaintiff’s expert affirmation as speculative, finding that it failed to establish that any code violation was present on the incident date or was the proximate cause of plaintiff’s injuries.
