Gregory J. Dell

Gregory Dell (Partner-New York, NY) and Omar Graham (Associate-New York, NY) defended global communications companies in a trip-and-fall case where the plaintiff was injured on a defective sidewalk. The plaintiff commenced four actions against thirteen defendants; three of the four cases were consolidated in Nassau County and the fourth tried in Queens County, resulting in Greg and Omar fighting the case in two venues. Discovery revealed the importance of identifying which specific aspect of the defect caused the plaintiff’s fall as the answer would affect which defendants were potentially liable. Despite receiving several opportunities at her deposition, the plaintiff admitted she was not sure whether she fell due to (1) the uneven sidewalk flags or cracks in the sidewalk, (2) missing portions of the sidewalk likely resulting from work performed thereon, or (3) a metal access box situated inside the defect. Notwithstanding that Greg and Omar were able to prove that the subject defect formed prior to the only work our clients performed in the decade before the accident, the Nassau County Court granted our client’s motion for summary judgment based on the plaintiff’s inability to identify what caused her fall, which is fatal to a plaintiff’s claim in New York. The Nassau decision legally precluded the Queens Court from a finding to the contrary, and the Queens Court granted our client’s summary judgment motion in that venue as well. The case in Nassau has been appealed.

Greg Dell (Partner-New York, NY) and Omar Graham (Associate-New York, NY) secured a summary judgment in a trip-and-fall case on behalf of a national communications client. The plaintiff alleged personal injuries as a result of tripping and falling due to a defect in the curbstone in front of a store our client did not own or operate, but was in fact owned by one co-defendant and leased and operated by another co-defendant, an authorized retailer of our client’s products and services. Plaintiff’s counsel inexplicably refused to discontinue after delaying his response for over a year, and instead preferred to force motion practice. Greg and Omar were able to show based on the definitions in the New York Administrative Code that a curb is actually considered part of the roadway, not the sidewalk, arguing on summary judgment that we had no legal connection to the defect or the property. At oral argument, plaintiff’s counsel argued that our motion should be denied to explore whether the defect could have been created by a client entity considering the presence of the store, but we were able to quickly establish that the defect actually predated the presence of the store and thus clearly there was no connection at all. Justice Patria Frias-Colon, New York State Supreme Court in Kings County, agreed with our arguments, and conversely found all of plaintiff’s arguments on opposition to be without merit. The motion was prepared and argued by Omar.