Lubecki v. City of New York

304 A.D.2d 224, 758 N.Y.S.2d 610, 2003 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3267
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMarch 27, 2003
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 304 A.D.2d 224 (Lubecki v. City of New York) 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
Lubecki v. City of New York, 304 A.D.2d 224, 758 N.Y.S.2d 610, 2003 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3267 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Tom, J.

In this unusual case, we affirm the judgment of the trial court except insofar as the apportionment of damages under article 16 of the CPLR is concerned. We remand for a new trial solely on the issue whether there was reckless disregard by police officers for the safety of plaintiffs decedent and that of plaintiff Ramon Vargas Santiago such as would deprive the municipal defendants of the statutory apportionment provided by CPLR article 16. This tragic incident arose out of a 1993 police action when New York City Police Department (NYPD) and Transit Authority Police Department (TAPD) officers responded to the scene of a bank robbery. During the pursuit of the bank robber, a hostage was killed. That death gives rise to the issue of whether the City and the Transit Authority (prior to merger of the TAPD and the NYPD) are jointly and [227]*227severally liable along with the robber, or whether the municipal defendants are entitled to apportionment of liability pursuant to CPLR 1601.

On the morning of January 29, 1993, Police Officers Michael Moss and Edward Brown were on patrol when a bystander alerted them to an ongoing bank robbery nearby and directed them to a Chemical Bank on 91st Street and Broadway in Manhattan. As they responded, one of the robbers, Sidney Fisher, fired at them with a large semiautomatic handgun before fleeing north along Broadway with the officers in pursuit. Meanwhile, Transit Officer Ronald Bauman and Sergeant Anthony Savarese were on patrol in the vicinity when they received a radio transmission regarding the robbery, and they immediately saw the gunman running toward them. They exchanged shots, and the robber continued his flight to and along West End Avenue and then toward Riverside Drive. During this chase, numerous shots were fired by the robber as well as by police. No shots hit the robber, despite some being fired from relatively short distances. Bauman was hit in his bulletproof vest but was uninjured. As the robber passed 202 Riverside Drive, he grabbed Bonnie Vargas, who had just exited her apartment building.

By now, Police Officers Patrick White, Jose Brizuela, Silvano Brajuha, Eugene Kastner and Michael Sosa were also responding from the nearby 24th Precinct. By this time, the robber was backed against 202 Riverside Drive, which was enclosed by a fence. He was surrounded on his other three sides by police officers. The robber held Ms. Vargas in a chokehold as he waved his handgun toward the officers. Clearly, he had nowhere to go, the flight and pursuit were over, and the robber and the police were in a standoff. Capture of the gunman was prevented only by the fact of the hostage.

Bauman shouted “just look around, there’s no place to go, it’s over, just put down your gun.” Although the robber subsequently fired in the general direction of police, they were all behind cars and other obstructions and they did not return fire at this time. No civilians, other than the hostage, were in the open or otherwise exposed to gunfire from the robber at this time.

As the standoff continued, Officer White maneuvered his way from across the street to the south side of Riverside Drive, about 10 or 15 feet from where the robber was located. Around this time, the robber started to slowly maneuver toward Riverside Drive. The robber held the hostage in front of him, [228]*228but .was not pointing a gun at her head or chest. While under cover of a parked car, White positioned himself to fire at the gunman. The events that followed are less than clear in particular details, owing to different points of observation by different officers and varying degrees of recall regarding split-second occurrences, but a general narrative can be discerned. From the outset, no ranking officer gave orders.

As Officer White stood and positioned himself, the robber shot in his direction. Although White was uninjured, Officer Kastner, misapprehending what White was doing, thought that White had been hit and consequently had fallen between parked cars. White testified that he had intentionally ducked. Kastner, thinking he was returning fire when an officer was down, shot at the robber. These shots initiated a volley of gunfire by the robber and other officers who, hearing the shots, believed that a gun battle had commenced. Kastner believed that the next shot was fired by Sergeant Venezia, a ranking officer, who, rather than taking command, simply joined in the shooting. Although Kastner testified at trial that he thought that the hostage had been able to break away, this was at variance with his deposition testimony that the robber was still using the hostage as a shield when he shot at the robber. Officer Brizuela thought that the hostage either tripped or fell when the firing began, and he fired four shots as he ran toward the robber. He also testified that no one took command and no orders had been given. Officer Brajuha thought that the hostage managed to move a couple of steps away when the firing began. Brajuha conceded during cross-examination that it would violate standard police procedure for any officer to fire a weapon while a suspect held a hostage. Bauman, too, conceded that standard police procedures prohibit an officer from firing if doing so would place an innocent person in jeopardy. He initially withheld his fire because of the hostage and noted that all officers were adequately protected and that the robber never pointed his gun at the hostage or seemed to threaten her directly. However, upon hearing the shooting, Bauman also started shooting. Bauman himself fired 13 to 15 rounds. Officer Sosa also initially declined to return fire, fearing that the hostage would be struck. But when he saw Brizuela fire, Sosa changed position and began firing. Sosa admitted having had no idea where the hostage was at that time. Sosa testified that no one took command and no orders were given. Sergeant Savarese testified that he did not fire because he thought that the hostage was too close to the robber. Savarese also recalled [229]*229that at this time all police officers were adequately protected by cover. Savarese was one of the ranking officers at the scene, and though he had a radio, he failed to take command. Not being able to think of any orders to give, he gave none. Officers Brown, Moss and White could clearly see, though, that the hostage was still being held by the robber when the firing began.

A bystander, Hagit Gal-Ed, who observed the incident from an upstairs window, testified that all officers at all times were under cover, and that the hostage at all relevant times was still firmly held by the robber. She believed that more than 30 officers were present by now. She heard some officers yell at the robber to drop the gun, and some officers urging others to shoot the robber. No one seemed to be in command. By the time the shooting started, the robber, with his hostage, was positioned directly below her window. The robber fired the first shot, toward the officers. But, she testified, he had never placed the gun against the hostage’s head, the hostage was firmly in his grip and positioned directly in front of him, and police then returned fire. Another bystander, Leon Marashaj, observed the pursuit and standoff from the street near the back of his UPS truck. Marashaj saw the robber, with the building at his back, surrounded by a semicircle of police and saw that at all times he held the hostage in a chokehold in front of him. When the robber fired twice toward police, they immediately returned fire.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
304 A.D.2d 224, 758 N.Y.S.2d 610, 2003 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3267, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lubecki-v-city-of-new-york-nyappdiv-2003.