Dowly v. State

190 Misc. 16, 68 N.Y.S.2d 573, 1947 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2098
CourtNew York Court of Claims
DecidedFebruary 26, 1947
DocketClaim No. 27783
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 190 Misc. 16 (Dowly v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dowly v. State, 190 Misc. 16, 68 N.Y.S.2d 573, 1947 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2098 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1947).

Opinion

Lambiase, J.

Claimant’s decedent, Karen Dowly, was admitted on November 21, 1942, to the Creedmoor State Hospital, an institution owned, operated, and maintained by the State of New York for the detention, care and treatment of mentally ill persons. His mental condition was diagnosed as dementia praecox hebephrenic type. On February 28, 1943, he died as the result of injuries sustained by him at the hands of another patient on February 21, 1943, while he was being cared for in a ward of said hospital used exclusively for disturbed and violent patients.

[18]*18The claim herein is based upon the alleged negligence of the State in relation (1) to the control, management, and operation of said hospital in the particulars therein set forth; and (2) to the failure of the State to afford the decedent herein proper medical care and attention following the injuries sustained by him which resulted in his death. It also alleges, among other things, the following: “ 7. The items of damage or injuries claimed to have been sustained and the total sum claimed for personal suffering and for injuries causing death, is Fifteen thousand ($15,000.00) Dollars.” (Emphasis, supplied.)

The proof adduced upon the trial offered by claimant and admitted without objection on the part of the State establishes, in our opinion, facts sufficient to constitute two causes of action against the State, viz., one for wrongful death of the decedent under section 130 of the Decedent Estate Law, and the other for conscious pain and suffering under sections 119 and 120 of the Decedent Estate Law.

We are mindful of the fact that the complaint, or, in this case, the claim, in setting forth an action for wrongful death, should contain the usual allegations to establish a cause of action for the wrongful act complained of, either of negligence or of some other tort relied on, and in addition should allege the due appointment of the executor or administrator of the decedent. It should also set forth the fact that the decedent left surviving a husband, wife, or next of kin (Lucas v. New York Central R. R. Co., 21 Barb. 245; Safford v. Drew, 3 Duer 627); and it is usual to name them, though not essential. (Keller v. New York Central R. R. Co., 24 How. Prac. 172.) It is not necessary to refer to the statute, but it should allege all the facts necessary to show that the case is one within its language. (Brown v. Harmon, 21 Barb. 508; 5 Wait on New York Practice [4th ed.], p. 567.) It is true that the claim herein does not separately set up the two afore-mentioned causes of action, and that some of the allegations usually found in, and essential to, an action for wrongful death are lacking.

However,' no question or issue was raised by the State as to the sufficiency of the pleadings herein; no objection was made that any of the proof adduced upon the trial was not within the pleadings; no motion was made by the State for a dismissal of the claim on the grounds that it failed to state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action; and no point has been made or urged raising the question of the sufficiency of the pleadings herein anywhere in the brief submitted herein by the State.

[19]*19It is well established that the specific ground that the evidence ¡ offered is not within the pleadings must be stated, for the reason that the pleader may be given an opportunity to avoid the vari- ■ anee, if possible, by an amendment. Where this objection is not specifically interposed, it cannot be raised upon appeal. (Voorhees v. Burchard, 55 N. Y. 98; Cole v. Bickelhaupt, 64 App. Div. 6.) It is a familiar rule that where the cause is tried on both sides without regard to the technical form of the action as disclosed by the complaint, and no question is raised at the trial, or objection made to that course, the successful party will. be deemed to have recovered upon the facts shown and not strictly upon his pleading. (Gillies v. Manhattan Beach Improvement Co., 147 N. Y. 420, 424, citing Belknap v. Sealey, 14 N. Y. 143, the latter case being distinguished on another point, not involved herein, in Callmeyer v. Mayor of City of N. Y., 83 N. Y. 116, 120.) The defendant, from the course of the trial, and because of his failure to raise the question in some form, must be deemed to have assented to, or at least waived# the variance, if any. (Gillies v. Manhattan Beach Improvement Co., supra.)

The motions made by the State at the end of the claimant’s case and at the end of the entire case upon the ground that claimant had failed to make out a cause of action “ referred of course to the facts as proved, and did not call for a decision upon the question whether there was in the language of the Code, * a failure of proof ’ of the special case made by the complaint. In short, the ground taken was, that upon the facts as they were proved the law would give no relief.” (Belknap v. Sealey, 14 N. Y. 143, 147, supra.)

We have deemed it proper, if not entirely necessary, in the interest of an orderly consideration and disposition of this case, to discuss the matter of the variance between the claim as filed herein and the proof made thereunder at the trial.

We consider now the allegations of negligence as contained in the claim, and we discuss them in the order in which we have,, for the purposes of convenience, hereinbefore enumerated them. As to subdivision (1): The evidence discloses that at the time that decedent sustained the injuries resulting in his death, he was one of sixty patients who were being accommodated and cared for in two wards known as S-9 and S-10 in building S of said hospital. Each of these wards had a corridor down the middle with ten single rooms off one side thereof and four small rooms, designated as “ cubicles ” in the testimony, off the other [20]*20side each containing five beds. Each ward provided accommodations for thirty patients. These wards were reserved and used for so-called “ disturbed and violent ” patients, and were being operated for such use as one unit at all times herein mentioned. Decedent was classified in the hospital as a “ disturbed ” patient, but not necessarily a violent one. In fact, the record discloses no evidence of violence or participation in acts of violence on the part of the decedent herein at any time prior to the incident hereinafter detailed in which he received, his fatal injuries.

On February 21,1943, at 4:00 p.m. of that day, three attendants had come to work and were in charge of the afore-mentioned wards. At about 5:20 p.m. that day, one of said attendants sustained a dislocated shoulder, necessitating his leaving the ward and going to the sick bay, thereby leaving two attendants in charge of the two wards. Shortly after 5:40 p.m. of that day while one of these two attendants was standing in the doorway of a clothes closet supervising the operation of the patients changing into their night clothes, he heard a commotion in one of the cubicles, which cubicle was located about forty feet from where he was standing. He immediately ran to that point and found the decedent, Dowly, on the floor with one Gilbert Hamilton, another patient, on top of him punching and kicking him. Both decedent and Hamilton “ were swinging arms and fists ”, Gilbert Hamilton had been a patient in the hospital for a long time, and was known to have committed previous assaults.

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Bluebook (online)
190 Misc. 16, 68 N.Y.S.2d 573, 1947 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2098, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dowly-v-state-nyclaimsct-1947.