Opinion
May 18, 1998
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Nassau County (DiNoto, J.).
Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, with one bill of costs to the appellants appearing separately and filing separate briefs, the motions for summary judgment are granted, and the complaint is dismissed.
The plaintiff Beatrice Guzzo sustained personal injuries after attempting to insert coins into a coin-operated toll gate device at the entrance to a Mercy Medical Center parking lot. Her foot slipped from the brake, setting her vehicle in motion, resulting in an eventual collision with a tree. Even assuming that the defendants Federal Signal Corporation and Federal APD Incorporated manufactured a defective and dangerous product and that the defendants Mercy Medical Center and Scully Automated Systems, Inc., negligently failed to properly maintain the automated entry device, or that there are questions of fact in that regard, we nevertheless conclude that the actions of the injured plaintiff constituted a superseding, intervening cause with respect to the accident, thus relieving the defendants of any liability ( see, Curtin v. Campbell Distrib. Co., 151 A.D.2d 861; see also, Kriz v. Schum, 75 N.Y.2d 25, 35; Kush v. City of Buffalo, 59 N.Y.2d 26, 33; Ventricelli v. Kinney Sys. Rent A Car, 45 N.Y.2d 950; Wright v. New York City Tr. Auth., 221 A.D.2d 431; Mack v. Altmans Stage Light. Co., 98 A.D.2d 468). Any negligence on the part of the defendants "`merely furnished the condition or occasion for the occurrence of the event rather than [being] one of its causes'" ( Wright v. New York City Tr. Auth., supra, at 432, quoting Sheehan v. City of New York, 40 N.Y.2d 496, 503).
Accordingly, the Supreme Court should have granted the defendants' motions for summary judgment dismissing the complaint ( see, Derdiarian v. Felix Contr. Corp., 51 N.Y.2d 308, 316; Rodriguez v. Gutierrez, 217 A.D.2d 692; Rivera v. Goldstein, 152 A.D.2d 556).
Friedmann, J.P., Goldstein, Florio and Luciano, JJ., concur.