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Court Says Fallen Eruv Wire Is Not A Known Dangerous Condition

By Howard M. Friedman

In Egar v. Congregation Talmud Torah, (NY Sup. Ct., April 16, 2009), a New York state trial court dismissed a claim by a victim of a slip-and-fall accident that a group of synagogues should be liable for her injuries because she tripped over a fallen wire that was part of an eruv maintained by the defendants. The eruv (a symbolic enclosure within which observant Jews may carry items on the Sabbath) ran through the property of St. John's Episcopal Hospital's teaching center where plaintiff fell. Plaintiff claimed that defendants had constructive notice that the eruv constituted a dangerous condition because a year earlier an eruv wire had fallen in a different location. The court disagreed, saying that a "single incident of the eruv falling a year before this incident certainly does not constitute evidence of a regularly recurring condition of which defendants must be aware." [Thanks to YY Landa for the lead.]

Full post as published by Religion Clause on April 19, 2009 (boomark / email).