Brief Description of Case:
Plaintiff alleges to have tripped and fallen over a raised portion of the sidewalk abutting the Rhame Avenue Elementary School’s “entrance gate” in East Rockaway, New York, resulting in personal injury.
Court or Jury’s Decision and Reasoning:
The Court found that counsel for the school district set forth a prima facie case that the school district neither caused/created the alleged sidewalk defect, maintained a legally defined “special use” upon the sidewalk which caused the alleged defect to arise, nor had a statutory obligation to maintain the sidewalk for the safety of third-party pedestrians traversing thereon, that of which plaintiff was not able to rebut via any valid triable issues of fact.