Southworth v. State

62 A.D.2d 731, 405 N.Y.S.2d 548, 1978 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10898
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJune 2, 1978
DocketClaim No. 58065; Claim No. 58835
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 62 A.D.2d 731 (Southworth v. State) 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
Southworth v. State, 62 A.D.2d 731, 405 N.Y.S.2d 548, 1978 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10898 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Dillon, J.

In connection with an experimental drivers’ rehabilitation program established by the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, we are asked to decide whether the issuance of an interim operator’s license to a person with a record of alcohol-related driving violations renders the State liable for injuries and wrongful death sustained by others on account of the negli[735]*735gence of the interim licensee in the operation of his motor vehicle while intoxicated.

John Southworth was seriously injured and his wife Alice was killed as a result of a collision which occurred on Route 175 near Syracuse on the evening of August 31, 1973. An eastbound vehicle operated by Uldis Baumanis, to whom an interim driver’s license had been issued two days earlier, crossed into the westbound lane and collided with the oncoming Southworth vehicle. As a consequence of the accident, Mr. Baumanis was convicted of driving while intoxicated (as a felony) and criminally negligent homicide.

In these actions it is claimed that the State is responsible for the injuries to Mr. Southworth and the death of Mrs. Southworth because its agents and employees were negligent in establishing and operating the Onondaga County Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) Counter-Attack Program (Onondaga Program) in violation of the statutory authority for its creation, and were further negligent in issuing the interim driver’s license to Mr. Baumanis who, it is said, was not a proper candidate for such a license. The cases were tried in the Court of Claims on the issue of liability only, the parties having stipulated to reserve the issue of damages for later trial in the event liability was found. The trial court determined that the State’s agents and employees were negligent; that such negligence was the proximate cause of the injuries to Mr. South-worth and the death of Mrs. Southworth; and that the claims were not proscribed by the doctrine of sovereign immunity. We reverse and dismiss the claims.

In an effort to improve highway safety, the Legislature in 1968 enacted article 21 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law to provide for the creation, by regulation, of "Experimental Driver Rehabilitation Programs” by the commissioner of Motor Vehicles (L 1968, ch 464).1 Broad authority was given to the commissioner "to institute * * * studies and experimental programs designed to determine the most effective methods of improving driver skills and attitudes in order to reduce traffic [736]*736violations and motor vehicle accidents” (Vehicle and Traffic Law, § 520).

The legislation also provided for the appointment by the commissioner of a Driver Rehabilitation Advisory Board (board) (Vehicle and Traffic Law, § 522, subd 1), the function of which was to advise the commissioner with respect to the nature and content of educational courses to be offered in conjunction with a program and to establish criteria for the selection of candidates (Vehicle and Traffic Law, § 522). Participation in a program was restricted to those persons referred by the board (Vehicle and Traffic Law, § 521, subd 1, par [c]).

The board was appointed in 1969 and between June, 1970 and May, 1971 the commissioner established five separate experimental programs; one each to be operated in New York City, Monroe County, Nassau County, Suffolk County, and another for operation in Onondaga, Erie and Westchester Counties. The Onondaga program was a co-operative venture of the Department of Motor Vehicles, Onondaga Community College and the Automobile Club of Syracuse.

Uldis Baumanis was convicted in the Town of Cicero on August 22, 1973 for having driven on March 15, 1973 while his ability was impaired by alcohol. In accordance with procedures established by the commissioner, the Cicero Town Justice forwarded Baumanis’ driver’s license and a certificate of conviction to the Syracuse office of the Department of Motor Vehicles, from which the Onondaga program was operated. He did not, however, immediately forward the renewal section of the license, which should have contained a record of previous convictions.

Mr. Baumanis made an appointment to appear at that office on August 29, 1973. In advance of the appointment he was tentatively approved as an appropriate candidate by the district director’s office, based upon the documents which had been received from the Town Justice, together with a computer-produced abstract of his driving record which had been procured from the department’s Albany office.2 The abstract did not reveal that Mr. Baumanis had been arrested in 1971 for driving while intoxicated in the Town of Onondaga and was convicted of that charge on August 21, 1973, the day preceding his conviction in the Town of Cicero.

[737]*737At the time of the Onondaga conviction the Town Justice neither took possession of Mr. Baumanis’ license nor did he note the conviction on the renewal section. In disregard of a departmental directive to mail certificates of conviction to the Syracuse district office the Town Justice mailed that of Mr. Baumanis to the department’s Albany office where it was received on August 27, too late to be reflected on the computer abstract of Mr. Baumanis’ driving record which was furnished to the Syracuse office.3 Thus, when Mr. Baumanis was tentatively approved for the Onondaga DWI program, the district director’s office was unaware of the conviction in the Town of Onondaga for which his license was subject to mandatory revocation.

Mr. Baumanis appeared at the Syracuse district office on August 29 where he signed the appropriate application forms and was interviewed by a Mrs. Cordon who was an employee of the program.4 She immediately noted the absence of the renewal section of his license and brought that to the attention of the assistant director, who called the Cicero Town Justice and learned that it had been mailed to the district office on the previous day.5 She also learned from Mr. Baumanis that earlier in 1973 he had been a voluntary patient for the treatment of alcoholism at a facility in Syracuse and that he carried an antabuse card.6 Neither she nor the assistant director was familiar with the purpose of an antabuse card and, upon the assistant director’s instruction, she telephoned the co-ordinator of the program at the department’s Albany office and was informed that Mr. Baumanis should not be disqualified on that basis. In keeping with the normal practice [738]*738of relying upon the computer abstract of convictions, Mrs. Cordon made no inquiry of Mr. Baumanis as to his previous driving record and thus did not know of his prior conviction for driving while intoxicated in the Town of Onondaga. She issued the interim license and two days later Mr. Baumanis was involved in the accident with the Southworth vehicle.

The trial court’s assessment of the State’s negligence may be divided into two parts, the first of which pertained to purported statutory violations. The court found that the commissioner failed to establish the Onondaga program "by regulation”; failed to consult with and utilize the expertise of the board concerning the operation of the program; and accepted candidates into the program who were not referred by the board. Additionally, the court found that participation by any person who stood convicted of driving while intoxicated was statutorily prohibited.

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Bluebook (online)
62 A.D.2d 731, 405 N.Y.S.2d 548, 1978 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10898, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southworth-v-state-nyappdiv-1978.