Jeffery Samel & Partners

Residential Premises

JEFFREY SAMEL & PARTNERS represents many owners of multiple dwellings, as well as single-, two- and three-family homes. We defend our clients regarding allegations of slip and fall incidents on debris, as well as sidewalk defect and snow and ice cases. We also represent our clients in cases involving claims of malfunctioning or absent fire and smoke alarms, insufficient security, defective elevators, collapsed ceilings, insect and rodent infestation, and asbestos and lead paint poisoning.

Appellate Decisions

Garcia v. Good Home Realty 67A.D.3d, 888 N.Y.S.2d 40, (1st Dept. 2009) Plaintiff alleged that she left her apartment to go to work. She claimed that as she descended an interior stairway in her building at 7:00 am, she was caused to slip and fall due to the stairs being in a wet and slippery condition. Plaintiff suffered a right tibial plateau fracture, requiring surgery. We moved for summary judgment on the ground that there was no notice of the condition to our client, the landlord. In opposition to our motion, plaintiff submitted an affidavit from her brother-in-law, a previously undisclosed witness, who claimed that that approximately 15 minutes before the accident, he observed someone mopping the staircase. The lower court agreed with our argument that such affidavit should be rejected, due to an inexcusable failure to give prior notice of such purported witness, and granted summary judgment to our client. Plaintiff appealed, but the Appellate Division adopted all of our arguments and affirmed the dismissal of the complaint. (Judah Z. Cohen)

Summary Judgment & Dispositive Motions

Darkwa v. 2690 Webb, LLC. [Supreme Bronx] Plaintiff slipped and fell on the front steps of his apartment building at 1:15 am on snow and ice that had accumulated during a snowstorm that evening. Plaintiff claimed that there was no handrail on the front steps where he fell, and an expert engineer alleged that such absence violated the applicable building code. Plaintiff claimed that his fall was due to the absence of such handrail. We retained an expert engineer for the defense, who established that the building code alleged to have been violated was inapplicable, because the particular building was a “Tenement” that was subject to a different code. Our motion for summary judgment, to which we attached a sworn affidavit from the defense engineer, was granted by the court. (Judah Z. Cohen)

Rivera v. Bilynn Realty Corp., [Supreme Bronx] Plaintiff alleged that she slipped and fell because the marble tread of the interior stairs she was descending was worn and uneven. We prepared a summary judgment motion on behalf of the landlord, presenting irrefutable proof that the building was built in 1921 and was only subject to the Tenement Housing Construction Law, which did not mandate a coefficient of friction that plaintiff’s expert engineer maintained was required. The court granted our summary judgment motion. (Judah Z. Cohen)

Ahearn v. P&E Realty [Supreme Bronx] The morbidly obese plaintiff claimed that she fell in the building where she lived because her fingers became stuck between the handrail and the wall, as she ascended an interior staircase. Plaintiff claimed that there was insufficient finger clearance, in violation of the applicable building code, and she offered an engineering expert in support of her claim. We obtained certified documentary proof that our client’s building was classified as a “Tenement,” not subject to the terms of the building code provision cited by the plaintiff's expert. The court rejected plaintiff’s expert opinion in its entirety, and granted our summary judgment motion. (Judah Z. Cohen)

Stone v. SMA E. 202 Property LLC [Supreme Bronx] Plaintiff alleged that she slipped and fell on an interior staircase of the building in which she resides. Plaintiff alleged a failure to clean the staircase, but could not identify what she claimed caused her to slip, other than to allege that the steps were always slippery. The court granted our summary judgment motion on behalf of the landlord, holding that the plaintiff’s claim that the steps were inherently slippery was insufficient as a matter of law. (Melissa Johnson)

Allstate Insurance Co., a/s/o Usher v. 1245 Realty, et al. [Supreme Nassau] Plaintiff’s subrogor alleged that inadequate security permitted unidentified third-party trespassers to enter the premises and ignite a fire (found by the FDNY to be arson) in an elevator shaft of our client’s residential building. Plaintiff also alleged that the building owner was negligent because the smoke detectors in the building had malfunctioned, allowing the fire in the elevator shaft to spread and cause property damage in the subrogor’s apartment. The court agreed with our argument that plaintiff failed to establish sufficient evidence that the building owner was responsible for the criminal acts of unknown third parties, or that the allegedly malfunctioning smoke detectors caused the property damage complained of. (Peter H. Paretsky)