Opinion
December 22, 1992
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Bronx County (Bertram Katz, J.).
Plaintiff was shopping at a supermarket when she was struck by a food scale which fell from its ceiling suspension. The injured plaintiff brought this action against the supermarket and its landlord. When plaintiff moved for sanctions and certain other relief addressed to the pleadings, the landlord defendants cross-moved for summary judgment, inter alia. Those defendants appeal the denial of their cross motion.
The law is well settled that an owner/lessor is not liable to third parties injured on demised premises unless said lessor has retained control or is contractually obligated to make repairs or maintain the premises (Lafleur v Power Test Realty Co. Ltd. Partnership, 159 A.D.2d 691; Schlesinger v Rockefeller Ctr., 119 A.D.2d 462). The lease gave the landlord a right to enter for the purpose of making inspections, alterations and repairs, but nowhere is plaintiff able to point to any contractual obligations to make such inspection and repair. A landlord's contractual reservation of a right of reentry for general inspection purposes, unrelated to any affirmative obligation to maintain or repair, does not confer control over the premises sufficient to impose liability for a subsequently arising dangerous condition (see, Mobile Home Estates v Preferred Mut. Ins. Co., 105 A.D.2d 883, 884), particularly where the dangerous condition arises concerning a piece of lawful equipment installed by the tenant (see, Couvertier v Arcuri Realty, 161 A.D.2d 381, 382-383), over which the landlord has no control (Echeverri v Cain, 124 A.D.2d 780, lv denied 70 N.Y.2d 609).
An affidavit of the landlord's president, together with a copy of the lease, demonstrated prima facie entitlement to summary judgment (see, Clarke v Unanue, 97 A.D.2d 888), easily withstanding challenge by a bare affirmation of plaintiff's attorney, who had no personal knowledge of the facts (Zuckerman v City of New York, 49 N.Y.2d 557). The landlords cannot be liable in this circumstance, as a matter of law.
Concur — Wallach, J.P., Kupferman, Kassal and Rubin, JJ.