19 A.D.2d 545 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1963
In an action to recover damages for personal injury, the two defendants appeal as follows from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County, entered May 15, 1962 after trial, upon a jury’s verdict in the plaintiff’s favor for $20,000 against both defendants, and upon the court’s decision [rendered after the verdict pursuant to stipulation] in favor of the defendant city upon its cross complaint against the defendant Welsbach Corp.: (a) The defendant city appeals from so much of the judgment as is in plaintiff’s favor against it. (b) The defendant Welsbach appeals from the whole of said judgment. Judgment reversed on the law and the facts, without costs, and the complaint and cross complaint dismissed on the law. The metal door of a lamppost, which was about one foot from a street curb, fell off the post and struck plaintiff’s knee as he, while in bent position on the ground alongside the post, was about to open a toolbox which was at the bottom of a motor truck parked at the curb. The door was 18 inches long and 10 inches wide, and its bottom was from 2 to 3 feet above the ground. The design for affixing the door to the post was as follows: two lugs at the bottom of the door would fit into appropriate places in the door space of the post, and two screws at the top of the door would go through the door and into the post. The screws were of the type that any ordinary screw driver could remove. Defendant Welsbach, under a contract between it and the defendant city, was required to repair defective street lighting post or pole