Pinto v. Metropolitan Opera, 61 A.D.3rd 949, 877 N.YS.2d 470 (2d Dep’t. 2009).
Second Department upholds lower court’s finding that the defendants were entitled to judgment as a matter of law by presenting sufficient evidence that Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. (“Lincoln Center”), owner, and Metropolitan Opera, its operator, neither created nor had actual or constructive notice of an accumulation of water.
Plaintiff, a patron of the opera house fell on an accumulation of water at the foot of a staircase. She argued that water on the floor was a recurring condition in rainy/snowy weather and that the defendants were or should have been aware of that dangerous condition, sufficient for liability. The lower court disagreed and so did the Appellate Division. Upon K& R’s legal brief and oral arguments it held that proof of this general condition would not be sufficient to establish constructive notice of the particular condition causing plaintiff’s fall.