The Appellate Division, Second Department reverses a trial court’s post-verdict dismissal and reinstates a jury’s finding that an FDNY ambulance struck a bicyclist at a Brooklyn intersection and fled the scene, holding that GPS evidence and eyewitness testimony provided a rational basis for the verdict.
The Fourth Department holds that Rochester’s proprietary duty to maintain safe roads runs only to the traveling public, not to homeowners whose property is struck by a speeding vehicle at a T-intersection, absent a special duty running to them specifically.
The Fourth Department affirms a $908,000 verdict against Erie County after a deputy’s incomplete U-turn blocks a bus lane, holding that the VTL § 1104 reckless disregard defense was validly precluded as a discovery sanction and that the directed verdict on negligence was proper.
The Fourth Department bars a state premises-liability claim arising from hepatitis A contraction in Erie County jail under collateral estoppel, based on the federal court’s explicit finding that the plaintiff produced no evidence of unsanitary conditions, and dismisses punitive damages against the municipality.
Second Department affirms summary judgment for both City and abutting property owner in tree well trip-and-fall, holding Section 7-210 does not extend to city-owned tree wells and City lacked prior written notice.
Second Department affirms summary judgment for all defendants in parking lot trip-and-fall, applying multi-carrier facility exception to transit authority and prior written notice defense to municipalities.
First Department affirms dismissal of sidewalk-barricade injury claim against both City and Radio City, holding police crowd control is a discretionary governmental function and abutting property owner did not own or control the barricade.
First Department affirms summary judgment for City in police pursuit case, holding VTL Section 1104 emergency operation defense applies even without lights and sirens, and plaintiff who could have stopped cannot establish proximate cause.
The Washington Court of Appeals, Division I, reversed dismissal of a negligence claim against a 911 dispatch agency, holding that the complaint sufficiently alleged the special relationship exception to the public duty doctrine where a dispatcher took a call about an identified murder victim in an identified room, told the caller help was dispatched, and then placed the call on hold—but affirmed dismissal of the negligent supervision claim because the complaint did not allege that any dispatcher acted outside the scope of employment.