Thomas Coppola recently prevailed with respect to a summary judgment motion before Justice James of the New York Supreme Court.

5/9/2014

Thomas Coppola recently prevailed with respect to a summary judgment motion before Justice James of the New York Supreme Court. In this subrogation action, Plaintiff sought approximately $2 million dollars for extensive damage to real and personal property. The action arose from a fire that spread from an adjoining property that was undergoing extensive renovations onto Plaintiff's property. We represented C-Squared Contracting, the general contractor for the renovations (the townhouse our client was renovating was owned by the Chairman of Coach, the leather goods retailer).

Plaintiff alleged that welding activities performed by C-Squared's subcontractor created sparks that caused the fire. In granting our motion, the Court agreed that we did not owe a duty to Plaintiff's subrogor. The court also held that our client was not negligent, and there was no evidence that any alleged negligence was the proximate cause of the damage. In this regard, the deposition of the Fire Marshal who investigated the fire scene was crucial. Under our questioning, the Fire Marshal admitted that he could not conclusively determine the cause of the fire.

Attorneys

Thomas B. Coppola

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