Opinion
# 2020-041-505 Claim No. 125185
05-11-2020
ERIN DAILY v. THE STATE OF NEW YORK
FRANZBLAU DRATCH, P.C. By: Brian M. Dratch, Esq. HON. LETITIA JAMES New York State Attorney General By: Ray Kyles, Esq. Assistant Attorney General
Synopsis
Claim alleging that inmate/claimant was injured participating in work program because defendant failed to comply with program rules and failed to properly train and equip claimant is dismissed after trial where claimant's trial testimony conflicted with his notice of intention to file claim and his claim and where medical record and credible correction officer testimony showed that claimant fell and was injured due to dizziness and/or lightheadedness rather than negligent acts or omissions of defendant.
Case information
| UID: | 2020-041-505 |
| Claimant(s): | ERIN DAILY |
| Claimant short name: | DAILY |
| Footnote (claimant name) : | |
| Defendant(s): | THE STATE OF NEW YORK |
| Footnote (defendant name) : | |
| Third-party claimant(s): | |
| Third-party defendant(s): | |
| Claim number(s): | 125185 |
| Motion number(s): | |
| Cross-motion number(s): | |
| Judge: | FRANK P. MILANO |
| Claimant's attorney: | FRANZBLAU DRATCH, P.C. By: Brian M. Dratch, Esq. |
| Defendant's attorney: | HON. LETITIA JAMES New York State Attorney General By: Ray Kyles, Esq. Assistant Attorney General |
| Third-party defendant's attorney: | |
| Signature date: | May 11, 2020 |
| City: | Albany |
| Comments: | |
| Official citation: | |
| Appellate results: | |
| See also (multicaptioned case) |
Decision
Erin Daily (claimant), a state prison inmate, was injured on November 14, 2013 while acting as part of a work detail at Cape Vincent Correctional Facility (Cape Vincent). Claimant fractured an ankle. A claim alleging that defendant failed to properly train claimant, failed to provide claimant with proper equipment and failed to comply with rules and regulations in moving heavy objects was filed on October 30, 2014.
The applicable law is clear. The State of New York's correctional authorities are under a duty to provide reasonably safe equipment and training to inmates participating in correctional facility work programs (Havens v County of Saratoga, 50 AD3d 1223, 1224 [3d Dept 2008], lv denied 11 NY3d 846 [2008]); see Bernard v State of New York, 34 AD3d 1065, 1067 [3d Dept 2006]; Spiratos v County of Chenango, 28 AD3d 863, 864 [3d Dept 2006]; Manganaro v State of New York, 24 AD3d 1003, 1004 [3d Dept 2005]; Muhammad v State of New York, 15 AD3d 807, 808 [3d Dept 2005]).
However, defendant "is not an insurer of inmate safety, and negligence cannot be inferred solely from the happening of an incident" (Muhammad, 15 AD3d at 808 [internal quotation marks and citations omitted]).
Trial of the claim was conducted on January 6, 2020. Two witnesses testified at trial. Mr. Daily was his only witness, and the corrections officer (CO) supervising claimant's work detail on November 14, 2013, CO Scott Clark, was defendant's only witness.
The proof presented at trial presented three distinct and incompatible narratives to explain how Mr. Daily's ankle was fractured that day. Initially, claimant's Notice of Intention to file a claim and his filed Claim each attribute claimant's injury to claimant having had his foot caught under a dolly that was being used to move cabinets in a pole barn at Cape Vincent, which claimant and fellow inmates had been instructed by CO Clark to move.
Next, claimant testified at trial that while he and a fellow inmate were tipping one of the cabinets toward claimant, claimant lost his balance and fell, causing his foot to become stuck or wedged between two rungs of a homemade wooden ladder upon which he had been standing, resulting in an ankle fracture.
Finally, CO Clark testified that Mr. Daily, when asked in the facility's infirmary to explain why he had fallen, responded that he had been lightheaded. That testimony was corroborated by Exhibit D, claimant's Ambulatory Health Record (AHR) of November 14, 2013, which memorialized that claimant had stated that he had fallen and been injured as a result of being lightheaded and dizzy.
Beyond these three mutually exclusive and conflicting explanations for how claimant was injured on November 14, 2013, claimant's trial testimony was riddled with a series of self-contradictory statements or assertions. These contradictions included the following:
1. Claimant's trial testimony concerning the circumstances leading to his ankle fracture was entirely inconsistent with the circumstances described in his Notice of Intention to file a claim and similarly described in his filed Claim (neither of which make any mention of a ladder), inconsistent with his interaction in the infirmary with CO Clark and inconsistent with the statements he made to the treating nurse in the infirmary that were memorialized in Exhibit D, claimant's AHR of November 14, 2013;
2. Claimant testified at trial that he was directly transported from the pole barn to a hospital in Watertown by ambulance for medical treatment, and that he was never treated in Cape Vincent's infirmary, testimony contradicted by the credible testimony of CO Clark, and further contradicted by Exhibit D, Claimant's AHR of November 14, 2013, which detailed the medical care provided to claimant in the Cape Vincent infirmary that day; and,
3. After claimant, implausibly, initially denied at trial knowing what a dolly was, he subsequently testified to the characteristics of a dolly, "a wooden platform with wheels." He further testified that no dolly was present in the pole barn at the time of his fall, continuing to maintain that his foot had become wedged between rungs of a wooden ladder upon which he was standing.
By reason of all of the foregoing, the Court declines to credit claimant's trial testimony.
Corrections Officer Clark testified that claimant's foot neither became trapped under a dolly, nor had it become caught between the rungs of a ladder. Officer Clark further testified that while standing immediately adjacent to claimant, he observed claimant's eyes "roll back in his head," and that claimant "passed out right in front of me." Describing the event, CO Clark testified, referring to claimant, "he just pancaked, boom, straight down and then flopped."
The claimant, in failing to present credible proof at trial, has failed to prove the claim.
Claim No. 125185 is dismissed.
All motions not previously decided are hereby denied.
Let judgment be entered accordingly.
May 11, 2020
Albany, New York
FRANK P. MILANO
Judge of the Court of Claims