Opinion
October 6, 1997
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Schmidt, J.).
Ordered that the order is affirmed, with costs.
The infant plaintiff, Gary Broad, was sitting on the floor of a classroom in the defendant's nursery school when another child knocked a toy block from a bookshelf, causing the block to strike Gary in the face. He sought to recover damages from the school on the ground of negligent supervision. "`It is well established that a school is not the insurer of the safety of the students and it is only under a duty to exercise the degree of reasonable care that a parent of ordinary prudence would have exercised under comparable circumstances ( see, Ohman v Board of Educ., 300 N.Y. 306). When an injury results from the act of an intervening third party which, under the circumstances, could hardly have been anticipated in the reasonable exercise of the school's legal duty to the child, there can be no liability on the part of the school'" ( Ceglia v. Portledge School, 187 A.D.2d 550, quoting Hauser v. North Rockland Cent. School Dist. No. 1, 166 A.D.2d 553, 554).
The school was entitled to summary judgment because no triable issue of fact was presented as to the school's liability for this spontaneous and unanticipated act ( see, e.g., Hauser v. North Rockland Cent. School Dist. No. 1, supra).
Miller, J.P., Ritter, Sullivan, Santucci and McGinity, JJ., concur.