A defendant establishes its entitlement to summary judgment by showing that it neither created the allegedly dangerous or defective condition nor had actual or constructive notice of the condition. The defendant can make its prima facie showing by establishing that the plaintiff cannot identify the cause of his fall without engaging in speculation. However, a plaintiff's inability to testify as to how an accident occurred does not require dismissal where negligence and causation can be established with circumstantial evidence. To that end, the record must render the other possible causes sufficiently remote to enable the trier of fact to reach a verdict based upon the logical inferences to be drawn from the evidence, and not upon speculation.
Buckstine v. Schor, NY Slip Op 00646 (2d Dep't February 8, 2023)
