GIANGOTTI v. GRAUER

Order unanimously reversed on the law with costs and defendants' motion granted. Memorandum: Plaintiff Paula Giangotti slipped and fell on snow and ice on a sidewalk. She subsequently commenced an action against defendants, abutting property owners, alleging that they were negligent in allowing the snow and ice to accumulate. Defendants moved for summary judgment, relying on her deposition testimony identifying the location where she fell and on a survey and surveyor's affidavit showing that the location she identified was not on defendants' property.

Defendants met their initial burden entitling them to summary judgment. Plaintiffs' only submission in opposition was their attorney's affidavit stating that there were jury issues concerning the site of the fall and whether the site had been acquired by defendants by adverse possession. That affidavit was insufficient to raise an issue of fact whether the fall occurred on defendants' property (see, Bachrach v Farbenfabriken Bayer, 36 N.Y.2d 696; Stewart v Town of Waterford, 152 A.D.2d 837; see also, GTF Mktg. v Colonial Aluminum Sales, 66 N.Y.2d 965). It also failed to provide any factual basis for adverse possession. In the absence of explicit statutory language providing a right of action against an abutting landowner for failure to remove snow and ice from a municipal sidewalk, no such cause of action exists (Appio v City of Albany, 144 A.D.2d 869; Kiernan v Thompson, 137 A.D.2d 957, 958; Sacco v City of Buffalo, 78 A.D.2d 1000).