Alibrandi v. Helmsley

Defendants own an office building equipped with a typical freight entrance constructed as follows: a large street-level bay leads to a raised platform. Trucks park in the former, their rears abutting the latter, and merchandise is loaded or unloaded horizontally. A concrete ramp — seven feet long and tipped at a 45 degree angle — runs from the platform to the floor of the bay. Where the ramp meets the floqr lies a steel plate.

Plaintiff is a truck driver. On January 23, 1968, he drove to the building — as he had done many times in the preceding eight or nine months — to make a pick-up. All…