Somersall v. New York Telephone Co.

418 N.E.2d 373, 52 N.Y.2d 157, 436 N.Y.S.2d 858, 1981 N.Y. LEXIS 2114
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 19, 1981
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 418 N.E.2d 373 (Somersall v. New York Telephone Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Somersall v. New York Telephone Co., 418 N.E.2d 373, 52 N.Y.2d 157, 436 N.Y.S.2d 858, 1981 N.Y. LEXIS 2114 (N.Y. 1981).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Meyer, J.

Because subdivision (b) of section 1103 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law does not apply in the City of New York and there is no comparable provision in the City of New York Traffic Regulations, a public service corporation vehicle double-parked on a city street for a purpose other than actual work on the street, is unlawfully parked. Whether the violation, of the city regulations by the Telephone Company truck involved in the present case was a proximate cause of plaintiffs’ injuries was, under the circumstances of this case, a question for the jury. The order of the Appellate Division which reversed a verdict in favor of plaintiffs insofar as it was against the New York Telephone Company and, as against that company, dismissed the complaint, should, therefore, be reversed and a new trial granted.1

Plaintiffs2 were gathered on the sidewalk on the south side of 118th Street between Seventh Avenue and Lenox Avenue participating in or watching a card game. One hundred eighteenth Street is a one-way street running from west to east. Defendant Quilter sought to move his Continental, which had been parked on the north side of 118th Street with the driver’s side next to the north curb, and in the process mounted the sidewalk and struck plaintiffs. Approximately one and a quarter car lengths ahead of the Quilter vehicle on the north side of the street was a New [164]*164York Telephone Company truck double-parked approximately six inches south of the second car ahead of Quitter’s. Between the Quitter vehicle and the vehicle alongside of which the truck was double-parked was another vehicle parked at the north curb. The Telephone Company employees who double-parked the truck were at work in an abandoned building which could be reached through an alleyway on the north side of 118th Street.

Quitter, who had only a learner’s permit but was accompanied by a licensed driver as required by law, backed his car up, cleared the right side of the vehicle immediately in front of his car, then turned the wheel to the right. The evidence is contradictory concerning whether the car, which was 19 feet in length and 6 feet wide, then proceeded directly across the street, over the curb and into plaintiffs, or whether the turn to the right was made in an effort to maneuver around the truck and was followed by an incomplete turn to the left, after which the vehicle mounted the curb, striking plaintiffs. The truck was 7 feet 2 inches wide and 118th Street at the point at which the truck was double-parked is 29 feet wide. Thus, considering the curbside vehicle next to the truck, the space between those two vehicles, and the width of the truck, the open space alongside the right or south side of the truck was something less than 16 feet. Plaintiffs were at a point on the south sidewalk opposite the position of the double-parked truck.

The Trial Judge submitted the case to the jury on the theory that a public utility vehicle could double-park on the roadway if it was necessary to do so in order to make repairs to telephone lines,3 and left to the jury the question whether, if the jury found the truck to have been double-parked in violation of law, that violation was a proximate cause of plaintiffs’ injuries. The jury found for plaintiffs against both defendants and fixed the liability of Quitter at 70% and of the Telephone Company at 30%. The Telephone Company having moved for dismissal notwithstanding the verdict, the Trial Judge denied the motion.

[165]*165On appeal by the Telephone Company, the Appellate Division modified and dismissed the complaint, reading subdivision (b) of section 1103 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law, which refers only to section 1202 of that law, as though it referred as well to section 81 (subd [c], par 2) of the New York City Traffic Regulations, and holding as to proximate cause that because Quilter’s testimony was belied by photographs in evidence, which it read to “conclusively show that the Continental did not maneuver around the truck” (74 AD2d, at p 310), it was incredible as a matter of law and left the jury’s verdict against the Telephone Company without rational basis in the evidence. We disagree on both issues.

I

Section 1202 (subd [a], par 1, cl a) of the Vehicle and Traffic Law proscribes double-parking, but subdivision (b) of section 1103 of that law makes subdivision (a) of section 1202 inapplicable “to hazard vehicles while actually engaged in hazardous operation on or adjacent to a highway”. As defined by sections 117-a and 117-b of the Vehicle and Traffic Law a “hazard vehicle” includes a “vehicle owned and operated by a utility, whether public or private, used in construction, maintenance and repair of its facilities” and “hazardous operation” is defined as “The operation, or parking, of a vehicle on or immediately adjacent to a public highway while such vehicle is actually engaged in an operation which would restrict, impede or interfere with the normal flow of traffic.” The Telephone Company personnel having been engaged in an operation in a building off the highway, submission to the jury of the exception enacted by section 1103 would not appear justified even if the site of the accident had been outside New York City.

Inasmuch as it was within New York City, however, submission of that exception was error, not because of the absence of a supporting factual basis, but because of the inapplicability of the law. Section 1642 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law authorizes the City of New York by local law, ordinance, rule or regulation to supersede the provi[166]*166sions of the Vehicle and Traffic Law with respect, among other things, to parking, and the city has done just that. Section 190 of the City Traffic Regulation states explicitly that pursuant to section 1642 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law enumerated sections of that law, including section 1202, “shall not be effective in the City of New York.” While section 190 of the regulations makes no express reference to section 1103 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law, comparison of that section with section 22 of the regulations leaves no doubt that the latter is in substitution for the former.4

What governs double-parking in the City of New York is section 81 (subd [c], par 2) of the city regulations, the only exception to the proscription of which is that “a person may stand a commercial vehicle alongside a vehicle parked at the curb at such locations and during such hours that stopping, standing, or parking is not prohibited, while expeditiously loading and unloading, provided that there is no unoccupied parking space or designated loading zone within 100 feet that can be used for such standing.” It follows that both the Trial Judge and the Appellate Division were in error in holding section 1103 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law applicable, and that on the evidence presented, [167]*167which established that the Telephone Company truck had been in its double-parked position for some four and a half hours prior to the accident, plaintiffs were entitled to the charge they requested that as a matter of law the truck was illegally parked.

II

Conceding that negligence in double-parking could present a proximate cause issue for the jury, for which proposition it cited Daly v Casey (38 NY2d 808) and Naeris v New York Tel. Co.

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Bluebook (online)
418 N.E.2d 373, 52 N.Y.2d 157, 436 N.Y.S.2d 858, 1981 N.Y. LEXIS 2114, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/somersall-v-new-york-telephone-co-ny-1981.