Opinion
2011-10-27
Joseph J. CHESSEY, Jr., Plaintiff–Appellant,v.CITY OF NEW YORK, Defendant–Respondent.
Ginsberg & Wolf, P.C., New York (Robert M. Ginsberg of counsel), for appellant.Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel, New York (Ronald E. Sternberg of counsel), for respondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Carol E. Huff, J.), entered December 8, 2010, after a jury trial in an action for personal injuries, dismissing the complaint, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, the complaint reinstated, and the matter remanded for a new trial.
The City concedes that in light of the Court of Appeals' decision in Kabir v. County of Monroe, 16 N.Y.3d 217, 920 N.Y.S.2d 268, 945 N.E.2d 461 (2011), it was error to charge the jury with the “emergency doctrine.” It was undisputed that the driver of the City's vehicle involved in the accident was not “involved in an emergency operation” or “engage[d] in the specific conduct exempted from the rules of the road by Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1104(b)” at the time of the accident ( Kabir at 220, 920 N.Y.S.2d 268, 945 N.E.2d 461). Accordingly, the driver's conduct “is governed by the principles of ordinary negligence” ( id.).
ANDRIAS, J.P., SWEENY, ACOSTA, FREEDMAN, MANZANET–DANIELS, JJ., concur.