Chessey v City of New York
2011 NY Slip Op 07584 [88 AD3d 625]
October 27, 2011
Appellate Division, First Department
As corrected through Wednesday, December 7, 2011


Joseph J. Chessey, Jr., Appellant,
v
City of New York,Respondent.

[*1]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), forrespondent.

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, unanimouslyreversed, on the law, without costs, the complaint reinstated, and the matter remanded for a newtrial.

The City concedes that in light of the Court of Appeals' decision in Kabir v County of Monroe (16 NY3d217 [2011]), it was error to charge the jury with the "emergency doctrine." It was undisputedthat the driver of the City's vehicle involved in the accident was not "involved in an emergencyoperation" or "engage[d] in the specific conduct exempted from the rules of the road by Vehicleand Traffic Law § 1104 (b)" at the time of the accident (Kabir at 220).Accordingly, the driver's conduct "is governed by the principles of ordinary negligence"(id.). Concur—Andrias, J.P., Sweeny, Acosta, Freedman and Manzanet-Daniels,JJ.


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