Was Landlord Responsible for Tenant's Fall from Window?

Tenant's husband sued landlord for negligence and violation of the Multiple Dwelling Law based on injuries he suffered when he fell out of an apartment window that he had opened. Landlord asked the court to dismiss the case without a trial. In pretrial questioning, a paramedic had stated that the husband jumped out of the window during a drug-induced hallucination that a man with a gun was chasing him.

The court ruled against landlord. In other pretrial questioning, the husband stated that he went to tenant's apartment to tighten a drooping clothesline that ran from the kitchen window and hung over the building's interior courtyard. When he was unable to replace the wheel on the hook from which had had detached it, he placed a closed garbage can in front of the fully opened window, stood on it, leaned out a bit, lost his footing and fell. The husband claimed that the window guard located at the bottom of the window was loose and that there were no window stops. There were questions of fact that required a trial, including whether the window opened more than was legally permissible, whether a window guard was required, and whether it would have prevented the fall. 

Rivera v. St. Nicholas 184 Holding, LLC: Index No. 150282/2012, 2014 NY Slip Op 30727(U) (Sup. Ct. NY; 3/21/14; Coin, J)