SKETCHES OF COURT: Slip-and-fall in Brooklyn walk-up leads jury to find City negligent

May 6, 2015 By Alba Acevedo Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Court sketch by Alba Acevedo

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In this courtroom sketch, Hon. Peter Sweeney listens as defense attorney Matthew G. Accardo (standing), of Corporation Counsel, delivers opening remarks to the jury in the bifurcated trial of Andrea Osorio Gonzalez v. City of New York Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Ms. Gonzalez is represented by Ronald W. Gill (seated), of the law firm Fortunato & Fortunato. The proceedings were transcribed by court reporter Sylandia Brock (seated, center) as court officer Ed Ludwicki (standing, right) looked on.

At issue in the slip-and-fall case was the determination of liability. The plaintiff, a tenant residing on the top floor of a Brooklyn walk-up, made many complaints of a leaky roof condition to the city’s 311 hotline. In April 2005, hearing above her what she thought might have been workers responding to the complaints, she went to inspect the situation and to direct workers to where they could find the leaks in her apartment’s ceiling.

Though she found no one, she saw that tar had been applied at some point. On exiting the area, the unfortunate plaintiff slipped by the threshold and was injured in falling the entire flight of stairs from the roof. She hasn’t been able to return to work.

The plaintiff claimed that there was tar on the top step that had been painted over and created a dangerous condition. While the jury agreed and found the defendant negligent in that the top step was not reasonably safe nor properly maintained, it rejected the circumstantial evidence argument as the cause of the accident in the trial that concluded this week in Kings County Civil Term.