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ARTICLE ID 7402
Alleged negligent failure to maintain and repair sliding glass doors in shower of apartment unit - Plaintiff allegedly struck by loose railing on top of door and falls through shower door.
Kings
The female plaintiff apartment tenant, age 27 at the time,
brought this action against the defendant landlord of the
apartment building where she resided as a tenant, alleging that
the defendant failed to repair the glass shower doors, which
repeatedly caused her difficulty in opening and closing. The
plaintiff alleged that she was injured due to the defendant’s
negligent failure to repair the doors.
The plaintiff contended that a few years after she moved into the
defendant’s building, she began experiencing difficulties with
opening and closing the sliding glass shower doors and that
although she had made complaints, no steps were taken to rectify
the difficulties. The plaintiff contended that approximately
three to four months after she first complained, she reached for
a towel that she had draped over the metal railing at the top of
the door and that the rail detached, striking her in the back of
the neck and resulting in her losing her balance and falling
through the glass doors.
The defendant landlord denied any notice. The evidence also
disclosed that some three days before the incident occurred, the
plaintiff had sent a written complaint to the Department of
Housing Preservation, and the defendant denied that it had been
apprised of such complaint as of the time of the incident.
The defendant also contended that the plaintiff’s version of the
incident was inherently implausible. The defendant maintained p 7 3
that if the top rail fell while the plaintiff was reaching for a
towel, it probably would have struck her in the face and not the
back of the neck and would have propelled her backwards into the
tub, rather than forwards through the glass door. The defendant
also contended that there was no evidence of prior difficulties
with the railing and that in view of the evidence that the
detachment of the railing precipitated the incident, it was clear
that it should not be liable.
The jury found 5-1 that the defendant was not negligent.
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