For this plaintiff there'll be no dancin' in the dark.

Plaintiff alleged injuries after she tripped and fell on a walkway inside a parking garage at a state university's medical center, and she sued the garage, which had a contract with the university. The Second Department dismissed the complaint, in Huttie v. Central Parking Corp., which was decided on May 8, 2007, because the contract, without more, did not subject defendant to tort liability to a third party. The court said that "[t]here are three circumstances under which a party who enters into a contract to render services may be said to have assumed a duty of care, and thus be potentially liable in tort to third persons: (1) where the contracting party, in failing to exercise reasonable care in the performance of his or her duties, launches a force or instrument of harm; (2) where the plaintiff detrimentally relies upon the continued performance of the contracting party's duties; and (3) where the contracting party has entirely displaced the other party's duty to maintain the premises safely." The court found none of those circumstances here, specifically saying that plaintiff could not have relied on the garage's contractual duties since plaintiff had admittedly entered the garage knowing that it was pitch-dark because of a regional blackout.