New York

New York Court of Appeals Addresses Tricky Tort Issues

By Matthew Lerner

Chain-reaction motor-vehicle accidents or multiple related motor-vehicle accidents raise tricky tort questions regarding proximate cause.  The New York Court of Appeals addressed this type of tricky question last week in Tutraini v. County of Suffolk.

In that case, the plaintiff was behind a County of Suffolk police officer (the defendant) on a highway.  The police officer defendant suddenly decelerated from approximately 40 mile per hour to 1 to 2 miles per hour.  The plaintiff aggressively applied the brakes to her motor-vehicle and was able to stop without hitting the defendant police officer.  However, the plaintiff was rear-ended by another defendant seconds later.

A jury found that the defendant officer's reckless conduct and the rear-ending defendant's negligence were each a substantial factor in causing plaintiff?s injuries and apportioned fault at 50% each. The  Appellate Division reversed the judgment entered upon the jury?s verdict, holding, as a matter of law, that the defendant officer's conduct was not a proximate cause of the accident because the plaintiff was able to come to a complete stop without hitting the defendant's vehicle.

Full post as published by New York Civil Law on June 15, 2008 (boomark / email).