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.