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Let’s say, hypothetically, you are a burglar and decide to target a particular house owned by a family that will be away (overseas) for the Christmas holiday – i.e., for at least a week, without any indication that any of the family (let alone their 8 year-old son) is left Home Alone. So you and…
Read More Lime & Merchants v. McCallister
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In a recent case, Stephanie L. v. House of the Good Shepherd, 2020 N.Y. Slip Op. 04643, 2020 WL 4876487 (N.Y.A.D. 4 Dept., Aug. 20, 2020), the court discusses and applies the foundational principle of “duty” in a negligence case. The facts here are relatively straightforward; in sum, plaintiffs adopted a child through defendant (a…
Read More Court: Foster Agency Owed Duty to Disclose Foster Child’s History to Adoptive Parents
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In Kuti v. Sera Sec. Servs., 2020 NY Slip Op 02153 (App. Div. 1st Dept. April 2, 2020), the Appellate Division, First Department affirmed the denial of defendant security company’s motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff here is a nurse who was injured when she was attacked by a patient at the healthcare facility where she…
Read More Attacked Nurse’s Negligence Suit Against Security Company Continues
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In Vega v. Crane, 2018 NY Slip Op 03262 (App. Div. 4th Dept. May 4, 2018), a motor vehicle accident death case, the court explicitly held “that a person does not owe a common-law duty to motorists to refrain from sending a text message to a person whom he or she knows, or reasonably should know,…
Read More Fourth Department: No Duty to Refrain From Sending Text Message to Driver
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You may have read a recent news story about a group of teens who recorded and mocked a disabled man, Jamel Dunn, as he was drowning. If this happened in New York, could the observers be liable in a civil action to recover damages for personal injury/wrongful death?[1]Whether criminal liability may be found is beyond…
Read More Duty to Help Those in Danger
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In Rodriguez v Judge and Community Church of Astoria, 2015 NY Slip Op 07828 [132 AD3d 966] (App. Div. 2nd Dept. Oct. 28, 2015), the court explained and applied the well-known tort doctrine of “respondeat superior”, under which an employer is liable for the torts of its employees. Here are the (briefly-summarized) facts of this personal…
Read More Church Not Liable to Plaintiff for Assault/Battery by Employee’s Husband
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In Katz v United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, 2016 NY Slip Op 00094 (App. Div. 1st Dept. Jan. 12, 2016), the court held that the defendant owed the injured plaintiff a duty, and permitted her negligence claim to continue. This decision outlines general principles regarding the critical/threshold issue of duty in a negligence case. Here are…
Read More Synagogue Owed Duty to Study-Abroad Student
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Consider this law-school-exam-like scenario: Person goes to hospital, where she is prescribed medication that makes her drowsy (but not told that it will do so). She then, under the influence of the medication, drives and hits plaintiff with her car. Can plaintiff sue the hospital for negligence? These are the (simplified/summarized) facts of the Court…
Read More Court of Appeals: Hospital Owed Duty to Third Party
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Teaching is hard work. In addition to the typical stresses of any job – rude co-workers, overbearing bosses, long hours – teachers are forced to deal with unique challenges, such as physical violence in the classroom. This has been in the news lately; the search results from a Google query for “student attack teacher” are disheartening, to…
Read More Absence of “Special Duty” Results in Dismissal of Injured Teacher’s Lawsuit
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In a decision issued today, Williams v. Weatherstone, the New York Court of Appeals held that a school district owed no duty to a student (designated as “A.” in the opinion) who was struck by a car while waiting for the school bus. The accident happened as follows: On March 13th, A.’s newly assigned bus,…
Read More School District Did Not Owe Duty to Student Hit By Car