283 A.D. 806 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1954
In an action to recover damages for personal injuries allegedly suffered as the result of a fall on a sidewalk covered with ice and snow, defendant appeals from a judgment entered on the verdict of a jury in favor of plaintiff. Judgment reversed on the law, without costs, and complaint dismissed. Findings of fact implicit in the verdict are affirmed. The accident occurred on a sidewalk on Fulton Street, near Rochester Avenue, in Brooklyn, New York, on January 5, 1948, about 3:00 P.M., about nine and one-half days after the termination of a snowstorm (December 26-27, 1947), during which 25.8 inches of snow fell, and about three days after the end of a glaze and ice storm on January 2, 1948. The snowfall of December 26-27, 1947, was the heaviest within twenty-four hours in the history of the city. Northwest winds from twenty-six to forty-nine miles an hour blew almost continually from December 26th to December 30th. Temperatures were below freezing during most of the nine and one-half days from the time of the snowstorm to the time of the accident. During the hours when the temperatures were above freezing, they were below forty degrees. The proof as to the city’s efforts, through the use of men and equipment, to cope with this unusually severe snowstorm was thorough and uncontradicted.