Case ID: ad3d_81/html/1311-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Henry Fiebiger, Appellant, v Jay-K Lumber, Inc., Respondent.
    [916 NYS2d 545]
   Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Oneida County (Bernadette T. Clark, J.), entered February 8, 2010 in a personal injury action. The order dismissed the complaint after a nonjury trial on the issue of liability.

It is hereby ordered that the order so appealed from is unanimously affirmed without costs.

Memorandum: Plaintiff appeals from an order dismissing the complaint following a bench trial on the issue of liability. We affirm. “To establish a prima facie case of negligence in a slip- and-fall case, a plaintiff must show that the defendant either created the condition [that] caused the accident[ ] or that it had actual or constructive notice [thereof]” (Panetta v Phoenix Beverages, Inc., 29 AD3d 659 [2006]). Here, the weight of the evidence supports Supreme Court’s determination that defendant did not create or have actual or constructive notice of the hydraulic fluid spill that caused plaintiff’s fall. Contrary to plaintiffs contention, the court’s questions to witnesses did not deprive him of a fair trial, inasmuch as those questions sought only to clarify the testimony, and there was no indication of prejudice or bias against plaintiff (see Lewis v Port Auth. of N.Y. & N.J., 8 AD3d 205 [2004]; Hemmerling v Barnes [appeal No. 2], 269 AD2d 752 [2000]; Delcor Labs. v Cosmair, Inc., 263 AD2d 402 [1999], lv denied 94 NY2d 761 [2000], rearg denied 95 NY2d 792 [2000]). Present—Scudder, P.J., Fahey, Peradotto, Lindley and Martoche, JJ.