Wood Smith Henning & Berman (WSHB) senior associate, Shahnewaz "Shawn" Khan, secured a pre-answer dismissal of all claims against the firm's client in a premises liability action arising from an alleged workplace injury at a convenience store in Long Beach, New York. The court also denied the plaintiff's motion for a default judgment against the client, delivering a complete victory on both contested motions.
The plaintiff alleged that he sustained personal injuries while performing work at the property. During discovery, he obtained leave to amend her complaint to add several entities, including WSHB's client, relying primarily on insurance disclosures produced in the litigation.
Moving to dismiss under CPLR 3211(a)(1) and (a)(7), Khan demonstrated the amended complaint lacked a factual basis connecting the client to the premises, the alleged incident, or the work being performed. Deeds, corporate records, management agreements, and sworn affidavits established that a co-defendant solely owned the property, and that the client did not own, operate, manage, maintain, or control it.
A central issue was the plaintiff's treatment of two separate entities with the same or similar names as though they were interchangeable. The defense challenged that assumption and explained why the insurance materials did not establish any kind of duty owed to the plaintiff. To make the distinction clear, Khan used separate, consistent designations for the organizations throughout the motion papers and oral argument.
Following oral argument, the court adopted that framework, expressly recognizing the separate entities and using the defense's terminology in its decision and order. The court found that the documentary evidence conclusively established that neither entity owned the premises and the plaintiff failed to articulate any nonconclusory basis connecting the client to the property. It granted the dismissal motion in its entirety.
"This result reflects the careful factual investigation and precise advocacy that an effective defense requires," said partner and supervising attorney on the case, Nicole Aldridge-Henry. "By establishing our client's lack of involvement with the property, Khan secured dismissal before the client was drawn further into litigation over an incident for which it bore no responsibility."
Khan also successfully opposed the plaintiff's application for a default, which alleged that the client failed to timely respond to the amended complaint. The defense demonstrated that the client appeared and defended the action, challenged the asserted grounds of default relief, and again addressed the plaintiff's failure to distinguish between the entities. The court denied the application in its entirety on the same day it granted dismissal.
"The similar entity names had obscured what connection, if any, our client had to the premises," said Khan. "We gave the court a clear way to distinguish the organizations and supported the distinction with the documentary record. That approach was central to obtaining dismissal and defeating the request for a default judgment."
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