Prete v JJ Hoyt LLC

Holding The court held that an abutting owner’s liability under the ‘special use’ exception is limited to defects caused by or arising from that specific special use, such as using a sidewalk as a driveway. Summary judgment was reversed because the defendant failed to establish that vehicular traffic did not cause the defect, leaving a factual issue for the jury.

The court’s words

an owner will only be liable for a defect on the abutting sidewalk if it is tied to his special use of the property

251 AD3d 162, at the official text

it was not entitled to summary judgment, as it did not meet its burden of establishing that [it] did nothing to either create the defect or cause it through the special use of the sidewalk as a driveway

251 AD3d 162, at the official text