{"id":3714,"date":"2025-09-29T14:30:01","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.defranciscolaw.com\/blog\/?p=3714"},"modified":"2025-09-21T14:46:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T18:46:13","slug":"new-york-court-discusses-evidence-sufficient-to-support-a-premises-liability-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.defranciscolaw.com\/blog\/new-york-court-discusses-evidence-sufficient-to-support-a-premises-liability-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Court Discusses Evidence Sufficient to Support a Premises Liability Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When tenants and visitors use staircases in apartment buildings, they expect those stairs to be reasonably safe. A single misstep can cause serious injury, and premises liability law gives injured individuals the right to pursue claims when dangerous conditions are left uncorrected. But not every uneven surface or crack will support a lawsuit. A recent <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/cases\/new-york\/appellate-division-second-department\/2025\/2024-06926.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">decision<\/a> from a New York court highlights the limits of liability, showing that minor, trivial defects are not actionable. If you have been hurt in a fall on another\u2019s property, it is critical to consult with a Syracuse premises liability attorney who can evaluate whether the facts of your case are sufficient to establish negligence.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-start=\"983\" data-end=\"1392\"><strong data-start=\"983\" data-end=\"1006\">Factual and Procedural Background<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is reported that the plaintiff brought consolidated actions against the defendants, the owner and manager of her apartment building, after she allegedly sustained injuries while descending an interior staircase. In her bills of particulars, the plaintiff stated that her fall occurred on the \u201cB staircase between the lobby and the 1st floor on the 7th step up from the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\" data-start=\"1394\" data-end=\"2027\">Allegedly, during her deposition, the plaintiff admitted she was uncertain which stairwell she used at the time of the fall, suggesting it may have been the \u201cA\u201d staircase instead of \u201cB.\u201d However, she described the route she took before the fall and identified photographs that, she claimed, accurately depicted a cracked and uneven step that caused her to trip. The defendants moved for summary judgment, arguing that the plaintiff could not identify the cause of her fall without speculation and that, in any event, the alleged defect was too minor to be actionable. The trial court denied the motion, and the defendants appealed. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defranciscolaw.com\/blog\/new-york-court-discusses-evidence-sufficient-to-support-a-premises-liability-claim\/#more-3714\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When tenants and visitors use staircases in apartment buildings, they expect those stairs to be reasonably safe. A single misstep can cause serious injury, and premises liability law gives injured individuals the right to pursue claims when dangerous conditions are left uncorrected. But not every uneven surface or crack will support a lawsuit. A recent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-premises-liability"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>New York Court Discusses Evidence Sufficient to Support a Premises Liability Claim &#8212; Syracuse Personal Injury Law Blog &#8212; September 29, 2025<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When tenants and visitors use staircases in apartment buildings, they expect those stairs to be reasonably safe. A single misstep can cause serious &#8212; September 29, 2025\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.defranciscolaw.com\/blog\/new-york-court-discusses-evidence-sufficient-to-support-a-premises-liability-claim\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"New York Court Discusses Evidence Sufficient to Support a Premises Liability Claim &#8212; Syracuse Personal Injury Law Blog &#8212; September 29, 2025\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"When tenants and visitors use staircases in apartment buildings, they expect those stairs to be reasonably safe. A single misstep can cause serious &#8212; September 29, 2025\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeff DeFrancisco\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New York Court Discusses Evidence Sufficient to Support a Premises Liability Claim &#8212; Syracuse Personal Injury Law Blog &#8212; September 29, 2025","description":"When tenants and visitors use staircases in apartment buildings, they expect those stairs to be reasonably safe. A single misstep can cause serious &#8212; September 29, 2025","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.defranciscolaw.com\/blog\/new-york-court-discusses-evidence-sufficient-to-support-a-premises-liability-claim\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"New York Court Discusses Evidence Sufficient to Support a Premises Liability Claim &#8212; Syracuse Personal Injury Law Blog &#8212; September 29, 2025","twitter_description":"When tenants and visitors use staircases in apartment buildings, they expect those stairs to be reasonably safe. A single misstep can cause serious &#8212; September 29, 2025","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeff DeFrancisco","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.defranciscolaw.com\/blog\/new-york-court-discusses-evidence-sufficient-to-support-a-premises-liability-claim\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.defranciscolaw.com\/blog\/new-york-court-discusses-evidence-sufficient-to-support-a-premises-liability-claim\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeff DeFrancisco","@id":"https:\/\/www.defranciscolaw.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/798006ba40dee3a60d61603f8022a9f9"},"headline":"New York Court Discusses Evidence Sufficient to Support a Premises Liability Claim","datePublished":"2025-09-29T18:30:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.defranciscolaw.com\/blog\/new-york-court-discusses-evidence-sufficient-to-support-a-premises-liability-claim\/"},"wordCount":599,"articleSection":["Premises Liability"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.defranciscolaw.com\/blog\/new-york-court-discusses-evidence-sufficient-to-support-a-premises-liability-claim\/","url":"https:\/\/www.defranciscolaw.com\/blog\/new-york-court-discusses-evidence-sufficient-to-support-a-premises-liability-claim\/","name":"New York Court Discusses Evidence Sufficient to Support a Premises Liability Claim &#8212; Syracuse Personal Injury Law Blog &#8212; September 29, 2025","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.defranciscolaw.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-09-29T18:30:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.defranciscolaw.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/798006ba40dee3a60d61603f8022a9f9"},"description":"When tenants and visitors use staircases in apartment buildings, they expect those stairs to be reasonably safe. 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