Dantzler v. New York City Housing Authority

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York

Dantzler v. New York City Housing Authority

269 A.D.2d 420, 702 N.Y.S.2d 890, 2000 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1400

CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York

DecidedFebruary 14, 2000

StatusPublished

Cited by5 cases

This text of 269 A.D.2d 420 (Dantzler v. New York City Housing Authority) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Dantzler v. New York City Housing Authority, 269 A.D.2d 420, 702 N.Y.S.2d 890, 2000 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1400 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2000).

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Opinion

—In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, etc., the defendant appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Golia, J.), dated March 12, 1999, which denied its motion, in effect, for summary judgment dismissing the first cause of action in the complaint.

Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, with costs, the motion is granted, and the first cause of action is dismissed.

The infant plaintiff and his cousin were visiting a relative in a building owned by the defendant in Jamaica, Queens. As the children left the building on their way to a park, the infant plaintiff noticed some broken glass by the steps of the building. He picked up a stick, hit the glass, and handed the stick to his cousin, who also used it to hit the glass. When the infant plaintiff again hit the glass with the stick, a piece of glass hit him in the eye.

It is well established that while a defendant is liable for all normal and foreseeable consequences of its acts, an intervening act will constitute a superseding cause and will serve to relieve a defendant of liability when the act is of such an extraordinary nature or so attenuated from the defendant’s conduct that responsibility for the injury should not reasonably be attributed to the defendant (see, Gordon v Eastern Ry. Supply, 82 NY2d 555). Even assuming that the defendant here was responsible for the glass being on the premises, the action of the infant plaintiff in hitting the glass with a stick constituted a superseding cause which so attenuated any alleged negligence by the defendant from the ultimate injury that the imposition of liability would be unreasonable under the circumstances (see, Elardo v Town of Oyster Bay, 176 AD2d 912).

Although the defendant’s motion for summary judgment requested that the entire complaint be dismissed, the defendant’s arguments only addressed the first cause of action, and the Supreme Court treated the motion as one to dismiss only the first cause of action. We therefore make no determination concerning the remaining causes of action set forth in the complaint. Ritter, J. P., Sullivan, S. Miller and Luciano, JJ., concur.

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—In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, etc., the defendant appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Golia, J.), dated March 12, 1999, which denied its motion, in effect, for summary judgment dismissing the first cause of action in the complaint.

Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, with costs, the motion is granted, and the first cause of action is dismissed.

The infant plaintiff and his cousin were visiting a relative in a building owned by the defendant in Jamaica, Queens. As the children left the building on their way to a park, the infant plaintiff noticed some broken glass by the steps of the building. He picked up a stick, hit the glass, and handed the stick to his cousin, who also used it to hit the glass. When the infant plaintiff again hit the glass with the stick, a piece of glass hit him in the eye.

It is well established that while a defendant is liable for all normal and foreseeable consequences of its acts, an intervening act will constitute a superseding cause and will serve to relieve a defendant of liability when the act is of such an extraordinary nature or so attenuated from the defendant’s conduct that responsibility for the injury should not reasonably be attributed to the defendant (see, Gordon v Eastern Ry. Supply, 82 NY2d 555). Even assuming that the defendant here was responsible for the glass being on the premises, the action of the infant plaintiff in hitting the glass with a stick constituted a superseding cause which so attenuated any alleged negligence by the defendant from the ultimate injury that the imposition of liability would be unreasonable under the circumstances (see, Elardo v Town of Oyster Bay, 176 AD2d 912).

Although the defendant’s motion for summary judgment requested that the entire complaint be dismissed, the defendant’s arguments only addressed the first cause of action, and the Supreme Court treated the motion as one to dismiss only the first cause of action. We therefore make no determination concerning the remaining causes of action set forth in the complaint. Ritter, J. P., Sullivan, S. Miller and Luciano, JJ., concur.

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Bluebook (online)

269 A.D.2d 420, 702 N.Y.S.2d 890, 2000 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1400, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dantzler-v-new-york-city-housing-authority-nyappdiv-2000.

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