SOUS CHEF GETS BURNED

In Fairclough v. All Service Equipment Corp., Tania Fairclough, a sous chef at a Manhattan Houston's Restaurant, filed suit against All Service Equipment after suffering burns caused by a faulty stove burner grate.

Houston's had a contract with All Service to inspect all food equipment installed on the premises and, a week prior to the accident, a technician hadn't detected any problem.

When the Bronx County Supreme Court denied All Service's request to dismiss the case, the company appealed to the Appellate Division, First Department.

The AD1 found that All Service would only owe a duty to Tania if the company had created an "unreasonable risk of harm," if she had reasonably relied on that contractor's performance, or, if All Service had taken over Houston's "duty to maintain the premises safely."

As the facts of this case didn't fit into any one of those categories -- and because Tania failed to alert the technician of the broken grate a week earlier -- that was a recipe ... for the lawsuit's dismissal.

To download a copy of the Appellate Division's decision, please use this link: Fairclough v. All Service Equipment Corp.