Garcia v Leland Gardens Condo 1

[*1] Garcia v Leland Gardens Condo 1 2020 NY Slip Op 50483(U) Decided on April 27, 2020 Appellate Term, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.

Decided on April 27, 2020
SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, FIRST DEPARTMENT
PRESENT: Cooper J.P., Edmead, Torres, JJ.
570433/19

Elizabeth Garcia, Plaintiff-Appellant,

against

Leland Gardens Condo 1, Defendant-Respondent.

Plaintiff, as limited by her brief, appeals from that portion of a judgment of the Small Claims Part of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Bronx County (Lyle E. Frank, J.), entered on or about September 27, 2018, after trial, in favor of defendant dismissing the action.

Per Curiam.

Judgment (Lyle E. Frank, J.), entered on or about September 27, 2018, insofar as appealed from, affirmed, without costs.

The record establishes that the trial court applied the appropriate rules and principles of substantive law and accomplished "substantial justice" in dismissing plaintiff's claims for damage to her carpet resulting from a sewage leak in her condominium unit (see CCA 1804, 1807; Williams v Roper, 269 AD2d 125 [2000], lv dismissed 95 NY2d 898 [2000]). The court was warranted in concluding that plaintiff offered no competent evidence at trial demonstrating the cause of the leak and thus failed to establish that defendant condominium created or had actual or constructive notice of any causative defect or condition (see Lau Tung Tsui v New Charlie Tseng Corp., 35 AD3d 390, 391 [2006]; Murphy v Bronx Park Phase I Preserv. LLC, 58 Misc 3d 130[A], 2017 NY Slip Op 51749[U] [App Term, 1st Dept 2017]). On this record, neither defendant's responsibility under the condominium bylaws to maintain the pipes, nor correspondence from defendant in 1989 and 2011 concerning blockages in the sewer line, was sufficient to establish defendant's liability for the personal property damage resulting from the June 2016 leak.

All concur.

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.

Clerk of the Court

Decision Date: April 27, 2020