FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM JANUARY 18, 2018 • THE QUEENS COURIER 23
THE TOWER Q: One day, at a century-old building, I was going down the exterior stairs
leading to the basement. There I would punch-in at the office of my employer. I had
just stepped down from the top step, which was still wet from rain, and I started to fall.
The handrail did not begin until the third step down. I reached for it in order to stop
my fall, but the handrail was out of reach. So I fell down five or six steps.
A: The violation of a regulation, such as a provision of the building code, does
not constitute negligence per se, but it often constitutes evidence of negligence. As to
whether you have such evidence, most likely, under the current applicable building
code, a handrail must extend to the top of a staircase.
All the same, the owner may contend that the building is exempt from such a
requirement on the grounds of a ‘preexisting use’ – that the handrail was an original
feature of the building. The owner would seek to put forth testimony (a) that its limited
records do not indicate that the stairs or handrail had been replaced or substantially
modified in recent decades and (b) that its employees have no recollection of any such
activities. Nevertheless, this is not the same as proving that the handrail was an original
element of the building.
Moreover, even if the handrail was an original element, and so current
building-code standards do not apply, that does not dispose of your common-law
negligence claim: generally, compliance with regulations, or a building code, is not
dispositive on the issue of negligence. Your attorney is likely to argue that a handrail
starting at the third step is inherently a dangerous condition.
Please note that, even if your fall was precipitated by a misstep, given your
testimony that you reached out, there is an issue of fact as to whether the absence of a
handrail at the top of the stairs was a proximate cause of your injury. Likewise, the fact
that presumably you had used these stairs in the past and so may have been aware of
the defective condition does not defeat your claim. Rather, these circumstances may be
considered by a jury in assessing comparative negligence.
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