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The appeals court partly disagreed with the lower court. For Pursuit Realty, the property owner, the court said the evidence wasn't strong enough to prove the defect was trivial. There were no exact measurements of the height difference, and the photos alone couldn't show how serious the defect really was. So the case against Pursuit was allowed to continue. But for Maggies, the paratransit company, the court sided with the lower ruling. Maggies didn't own the property and hadn't created the hazard, made repairs, or had any special duty under city code. So the claims against Maggies stayed dismissed.
In February 2019, Karilin Torres Abreu was walking on a public sidewalk in Brooklyn. She tripped and fell because of a misleveled sidewalk flag, a spot where one slab sat higher than the other. She sued two companies: Pursuit Realty Group, which owned the property next to the sidewalk, and Maggies Paratransit Corp, which used the building. She claimed both were negligent in maintaining the sidewalk. The defendants asked the court to dismiss the case. They argued the sidewalk defect was too small, or 'trivial,' to count as a legal hazard. A lower court agreed and threw out the whole case. Abreu appealed that decision.
The main question was whether the sidewalk defect was truly trivial as a matter of law. Under New York law, property owners aren't liable for tiny defects that just cause someone to stub a toe. But courts must look at details like the height, width, and appearance of the defect. A second question was whether Maggies, as just a tenant using the building, owed any legal duty to fix the sidewalk at all.
This case shows how New York courts weigh sidewalk injury claims. Simply calling a defect 'minor' isn't enough to win a case without solid proof like precise measurements. It also confirms that only certain parties, usually property owners, carry a legal duty to maintain public sidewalks under city law.
Talk to a licensed personal injury lawyer in New York.