Bach v. City of New YorkBach v. City of New York
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Michael D. Stallman, J.), entered January 5, 2006, which, inter alia, denied that branch of plaintiff‘s motion seeking renewal of her previously denied motion for summary judgment on the ground of spoliation, and that branch of her motion seeking the imposition
Although plaintiff‘s motion was premised on new material and, accordingly, was one for renewal, and not reargument as the motion court thought, the substantive relief sought was nonetheless properly denied. While the record indicates that records possibly bearing on whether defendant had notice of the alleged park path defect were lost, their loss was evidently inadvertent and occurred before the Parks Department, the custodian of the records, had notice of an impending action by plaintiff. In view of the circumstances attending the loss and the additional circumstance that the lost records were not shown to be crucial to plaintiff‘s case, summary judgment upon the ground of spoliation would not have been appropriate (see Squitieri v City of New York, 248 AD2d 201 [1998]; DiDomenico v C & S Aeromatik Supplies, 252 AD2d 41, 53 [1998]; Kirkland v New York City Hous. Auth., 236 AD2d 170 [1997]). Nor did plaintiff demonstrate grounds for sanctions pursuant to