Summary
In Santiago v New York City Hous. Auth. (63 N.Y.2d 761), the Court of Appeals affirmed the grant of summary judgment in favor of the landowner defendant where, as here, the plaintiff, who resided in a public housing project located in a neighborhood known for its criminal activity, was the victim of a shooting by a criminal assailant.
Summary of this case from Muniz v. Flohern, Inc.Opinion
Decided September 20, 1984
Appeal from the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the First Judicial Department, Louis Fusco, Jr., J.
Edward P. Dunphy and Morris J. Eisen for appellant.
Francis J. Marcheret for respondent.
MEMORANDUM.
The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed, with costs.
The negligence of defendant New York City Housing Authority in not repairing a "jammed" exterior door is not a proximate, or legal cause of the injuries sustained by the plaintiff when she was shot in the leg after being unable to open the exterior door in attempting to reenter her building. Under these circumstances the intervening act of the unknown assailant was extraordinary and unforeseeable as a matter of law, and thus served to "break the causal connection" between the defendant's negligence and the plaintiff's injuries ( Derdiarian v Felix Contr. Corp., 51 N.Y.2d 308, 315). To hold the shooting incident a foreseeable consequence of the defendant's negligence would "stretch the concept of foreseeability beyond acceptable limits" ( Ventricelli v Kinney System Rent A Car, 45 N.Y.2d 950, 952).
Chief Judge COOKE and Judges JASEN, JONES, WACHTLER, MEYER, SIMONS and KAYE concur.
On review of submissions pursuant to section 500.4 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals (22 N.Y.CRR 500.4), order affirmed, with costs, in a memorandum.