Snow is on the Way! What to Do with Your Sidewalk?

Winter is approaching and that means snowstorms. Kids are excited because they miss school and play in the snow. Adults have a different view: Digging out cars to get to work, slippery road ways, and shoveling sidewalks.

Are you legally obligated to shovel the sidewalk in front of your home or business? What happens if someone falls on the sidewalk? Accidents that involve snow and ice are very dangerous and often result in serious injuries. Who is responsible?

Most towns, counties, villages and cities have ordinances that require abutting property owners to clear the sidewalk in front of their property. However, if you fail to clear the snow and ice and someone slips and falls–you may not have liability for the accident.

While a local ordinance may require you to clear the snow & ice, it might not create a legal duty to the passing pedestrian to keep the area safe–that duty remains with the municipality as the sidewalk oftentimes belongs to the municipality. As owner of the sidewalk, the municipality is legally responsible to the passing pedestrian to take care of the sidewalk, keep it clean and reasonably safe.

For example, in the Town of Hempstead a homeowner's failure to clear the sidewalk in front of his/her home won't create liability for the homeowner should someone slip and fall on snow or ice.

The Town would be responsible---but generally only if it received prior written notice of the dangerous sidewalk conditions. This can often be a difficult thing to find--especially for transient conditions like snow and ice.

Sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

Many municipalities have recognized this anomaly and have enacted ordinances that create such a legal duty, specifically imposing civil liability on abutting owners for injuries caused by unsafe conditions such as snow & ice, uneven sidewalks and exposed tree roots. Examples of such locales include the City of New York, Village of Mineola, Village of Hempstead and the Town of Oyster Bay.

The Town of Oyster Bay's Code specifically provides that:

Each owner and occupant of any house or other building, and any owner or person entitled to possession of any vacant lot, and any person having charge of any church or any public building in the Town shall keep the sidewalk in front of the lot or house free from obstruction by snow or ice and icy conditions, and shall at all times keep the sidewalk in good and safe repair and maintain it in a clean condition and free from filth, dirt, weeds or other obstructions or encumbrances, and such owner or occupant and each of them shall be liable for any injury or damage by reason of omission, failure or negligence to make, maintain or repair such sidewalk or for a violation or nonobservance of the ordinances relating to making, maintaining and repairing sidewalks, curbstones and gutters.

The Town of Oyster Bay's Code not only requires the homeowner to maintain the sidewalk in a reasonably safe condition, but goes one step further and makes the homeowner liable for someone's injury. The Town Code imposes a legal duty on the abutting property owner to maintain the Town's sidewalk!

The justification for these codes really does make sense. It creates the liability for keeping the sidewalk safe upon the people who have daily access to the area, are in the best position to immediately correct and remedy unsafe conditions--the abutting property owner.

Should a passerby be injured by an unsafe sidewalk, in places like the Town of Oyster Bay, the City of New York and other villages and locales, the injured party will be able to make a direct claim against the abutting property owner.

While snow and ice may seem like a recipe for disaster,if you know the proper way to handle it, you can avoid problems. What should you do?

If you live in a place like Town of Oyster Bay, New York City or the Village of Mineola you must keep the sidewalk in reasonably safe condition, which means clearing the sidewalk of snow and ice, applying salt, sand or other melting agents. You need to be vigilant and keep your sidewalks in reasonably safe condition.

If you don’t live in such places, as a good neighbor, you’ll likely shovel your sidewalk anyway. If you do, do it carefully! Shoveling your sidewalk is an invitation to walk on it. If a sidewalk weren’t shoveled, a pedestrian would just go around it. Once the pathway is clear, the pedestrian assumes that it’s safe to walk through, and you should make sure that it is.

If you have questions about these issues, or know someone affected or injured in such circumstances, call us and we can help.

Law Offices of
Elan Wurtzel, P.C.
516-822-7866
800-972-8144