New York follows pure comparative negligence, so a pedestrian found 30 percent at fault for texting while walking recovers 70 percent of their damages from the responsible sidewalk owner. In NYC sidewalk cases, defendants commonly argue the defect was open and obvious, the lighting was adequate, or the pedestrian was distracted or intoxicated. Those arguments shrink verdicts but rarely eliminate them, which limits how much an owner can rely on blaming the victim. The dependable way to control exposure is removing the defect, since a repaired flag generates no percentages to argue about.
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