PLAINTIFF’S RECKLESS ACTIONS SEVERED ANY CONNECTION BETWEEN ANY ALLEGED NEGLIGENCE AND THE ACCIDENT.
The Second Department determined plaintiff’s reckless actions severed any connection between any alleged negligence and the accident. Plaintiff was hit by a train while walking in an area to which she was not allowed access:
… [T]he defendants … demonstrated, as a matter of law, that the plaintiff’s conduct, under the circumstances of this case, constituted an intervening and superseding cause which absolved the defendants of liability … . The defendants’ submissions demonstrated that the then-17-year-old plaintiff circumvented various barriers to access an elevated track area, proceeded to walk alongside the track area, and then attempted to cross a train bridge that had limited clearance and no protective railings or fencing. In doing so, she acted with reckless and extraordinary conduct, which, as a matter of law, constituted an intervening and superseding event which severs any causal nexus between the occurrence of the accident and any alleged negligence on the part of the defendants … . Weimar v Metropolitan Transp. Auth., 2017 NY Slip Op 01403, 2nd Dept 2-22-17
NEGLIGENCE (PLAINTIFF’S RECKLESS ACTIONS SEVERED ANY CONNECTION BETWEEN ANY ALLEGED NEGLIGENCE AND THE ACCIDENT)/PROXIMATE CAUSE (NEGLIGENCE, PLAINTIFF’S RECKLESS ACTIONS SEVERED ANY CONNECTION BETWEEN ANY ALLEGED NEGLIGENCE AND THE ACCIDENT)/INTERVENING AND SUPERSEDING CAUSE (NEGLIGENCE, PLAINTIFF’S RECKLESS ACTIONS SEVERED ANY CONNECTION BETWEEN ANY ALLEGED NEGLIGENCE AND THE ACCIDENT)