Kobre v. United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, Inc.

32 A.D.3d 218, 819 N.Y.S.2d 737
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedAugust 3, 2006
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 32 A.D.3d 218 (Kobre v. United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, Inc.) 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
Kobre v. United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, Inc., 32 A.D.3d 218, 819 N.Y.S.2d 737 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Alice Schlesinger, J.), entered October 31, 2002, which, to the extent appealed from, denied the motions of defendants United Jewish Appeal (UJA) and Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York Service Corporation (FOJP) for summary judgment, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, the motions granted and the complaint dismissed. The Clerk is directed to enter judgment accordingly. Appeal from order, same court and Justice, entered October 31, 2002, which modified a prior decision dated July 30, 2002, by striking that portion of the decision which stated that defendant UJA owed a duty of care to the injured plaintiff and replaced it with language stating that there [219]*219was an issue of fact on this issue, and denied its motion for summary judgment, unanimously dismissed as academic, without costs, in light of the foregoing.

Camp Mogen Avraham (the Camp), is a summer camp for boys in Sullivan County, New York. Plaintiff Elisha Kobre started attending the Camp when he was about six years old and became a “counselor in training” in 1990. In the summer of 1991, he was 15 years old. As he was too old to return as a camper, but too young to qualify as a full-time counselor, he was offered a position as a junior counselor. This was under the supervision of his uncle, Moshe Stavsky, the Camp’s head lifeguard.

The Camp is on a lake and is equipped with wooden docks. On August 4, 1991, Elisha completed his first lifeguard class on “shallow dives,” which are used to rescue distressed swimmers. The class was taught by Stavsky on one of the lakeside docks. This dock was marked to indicate a water depth of six feet. During the class, Elisha and each of the other class participants made successful practice dives. When the class ended, Elisha took an additional practice dive and struck the bottom of the lake. He suffered injuries which rendered him a quadriplegic.

Because Elisha was a minor, the action was commenced on his behalf by his mother, Sheryl Kobre. She also asserted a derivative claim for loss of services. In the complaint, plaintiffs alleged a number of acts and omissions which they claimed constituted actionable negligence by the Camp, UJA and FOJP. These included permitting individuals under the defendants’ control to dive off of a dock, a sign which inaccurately stated that the depth of the water in the area was six feet,1 and failing to post signs warning against diving into shallow water.

The action against the Camp was discontinued in June 1999, upon a finding, affirmed by the Third Department, that Elisha was a Camp employee at the time of his accident. As a result, Elisha was relegated to recovery of workers’ compensation benefits from that defendant (Matter of Kobre v Camp Mogen Avraham, 255 AD2d 636 [1998]; Matter of Kobre v Camp Mogen Avraham, 293 AD2d 893 [2002]).

In 1999, UJA and FOJP moved for summary judgment. In a July 6, 2000 order, the IAS court denied the motion, finding “triable issues of fact as to the control that defendant UJA had over the operation of the camp and the relationship between [220]*220FOJP Services Corp., the UJA and the [C]amp.” This order was not appealed.

Defendants UJA and FOJP then moved to amend their answer to raise the affirmative defense of workers’ compensation. This motion was also denied, and defendants appealed. This Court affirmed the denial because the claims against the defendants alleged direct, not vicarious liability (288 AD2d 158, 158-159 [2001]). The Court also stated that plaintiffs were suing defendants upon a theory that, through the Camp’s dependence on funding and advice from defendants, they exercised actual control over the Camp’s operations so as to render them directly liable for plaintiffs’ injuries. On that appeal, plaintiffs had asserted that UJA was equitably estopped from denying its control over the Camp. Plaintiffs argued that through its advertising, UJA had encouraged patronage of UJA-funded camps, including the Camp at issue here.

Upon completion of discovery, which included more than 16 depositions and years of document discovery, defendants renewed their motions for summary judgment. Plaintiffs opposed, and cross-moved for partial summary judgment. The following facts were adduced in support of this second set of summary judgment motions.

UJA is a philanthropic not-for-profit corporation from which the Camp received 10% of its operating budget. UJA also gave annual grants to the camp for scholarships to needy children. In addition, it gave “restricted” grants to the Camp for specific capital or program needs in response to the Camp’s requests for certain items. UJA never directed that any project be undertaken, and it did not condition its grants on any method of operation or safety standards. However, UJA did have the Camp use its logo on their stationery and the Camp displayed UJA banners.

In support of its claim that UJA had a controlling interest in the Camp, plaintiffs submitted a brochure entitled “UJA Federation Camping.” This lists the Camp among those sponsored by UJA. Another UJA pamphlet, introduced by plaintiffs on the motions, states: “our well supervised facilities offer hiking, swimming, arts & crafts, sports, and just about every other activity under the sun.”

On one day each summer, called “Federation Day,” UJA representatives visited the camp. The parties contest the nature of the visit. Plaintiffs allege that UJA used the day to conduct an inspection of the facilities and operation of the camp. UJA countered that its activities on Federation Day were limited to determining the need for specific allocations, that is, to [221]*221ascertaining how much money the camp needed based upon the number of campers and the general working of the facility.

It is uncontested, however, that none of the Camp’s officers or directors were representatives of UJA. Nor does UJA own, operate or manage any aspect of the Camp’s property.

FOJP is a not-for-profit corporation which is affiliated with UJA. At the time of the accident, it provided risk management, insurance advice and insurance to many recipients of UJA funding. Plaintiffs allege that FOJP received a separate service fee from the Camp for its safety and security services. Plaintiffs also claim that the safety inspections or “surveys” FOJP performed were not conducted by its risk management group, but by a separate department of the company.

However, the record shows that FOJP provided only safety surveys and suggestions to the camp during the time that it served as its insurer. This is demonstrated by at least two letters in the record from Robert DeServio, the director of safety and security at FOJP to Rabbi Kaminetsky, the executive director of the Camp. The first, dated September 5, 1990, contained the following introductory paragraph: “These recommendations are intended to help identify hazards which may lead to injuries or other type losses [sic] and, propose hazard control methods. In some instances, there may be alternate ways of controlling a hazard and I am available to discuss these with you . . . [R]epair and replacement of old structures and equipment can help to avoid situations in which a hazardous condition contributes to an injury or other type of loss.” The letter then delineated potential hazardous conditions in the Camp facilities. It included the following warning: “(9) (c) The water depth should be indicated on docks and be obvious both from the dock and in the water area.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
32 A.D.3d 218, 819 N.Y.S.2d 737, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kobre-v-united-jewish-appeal-federation-of-jewish-philanthropies-of-new-nyappdiv-2006.