Florence v. Goldberg

375 N.E.2d 763 (1978)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Florence took her 6-year-old child (P) to school each day for two weeks. The city police stationed a guard at the street crossing. Having observed the protection, she stopped taking her child to school. The crossing guard called in sick one day. Upon receiving notification of the crossing guard's unavailability for duty, the police department neither assigned a patrolman to substitute for the crossing guard nor notified the school principal of the absence of a crossing guard at the Park Place and Ralph Avenue intersection. While the infant plaintiff was returning home from school, he was struck by a taxicab while attempting to cross this intersection. He suffered severe brain damage. P sued New York City, Lilly Transportation Corp., the owner of the taxicab, and Meyer Goldberg, the operator of the vehicle, seeking damages for the personal injuries suffered by the infant. The jury returned a verdict against Lilly and New York City. The Appellate Division affirmed the judgment of liability, but ordered a new trial on the issue of damages, holding that the award had been tainted by P's improper use of medical textbooks at trial. On retrial, the jury awarded the infant $500,000 and his mother $270,000. On appeal, the Appellate Division, holding the award to the infant's mother excessive, ordered a new trial on the issue of damages unless P agreed to accept a reduction to $125,000. Plaintiff so stipulated. D appealed. The City of New York contends that a municipality acting in its governmental capacity to protect the public from external hazards cannot be held liable in damages for its failure to furnish adequate protection.