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PLAINTIFF’S DECEDENT WAS TORTURED AND MURDERED IN HER HOME BY HER MOTHER AND BROTHER; ALTHOUGH COUNTY AUTHORITIES HAD BEEN CALLED TO INVESTIGATE ALLEGATIONS PLAINTIFF’S DECEDENT HAD SUFFERED INJURIES AND SHERIFFS HAD RETURNED PLAINTIFF’S DECEDENT TO HER HOME AFTER SHE RAN AWAY, THERE WAS NO SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE COUNTY SUCH THAT PLAINTIFF’S DECEDENT JUSTIFIABLY RELIED ON INTERVENTION BY COUNTY AUTHORITIES (CT APP).

​The Court of Appeals, in a full-fledged opinion by Judge Troutman, over an extensive dissenting opinion, determined plaintiff did not raise a question of fact about the existence of a special relationship between plaintiff’s decedent, Laura, and the county such that the county could be liable for the torture and murder of Laura by her mother, Eva, and brother, Luke. Laura, was a 23-year-old woman with developmental disabilities. Laura’s brother, Richard, called county authorities about injuries to his sister. Richard’s allegations were investigated and deemed unfounded. On one occasion Laura ran away from home after an argument with her mother and was returned by county sheriffs. The Court of Appeals held there was nothing about the way the authorities investigated Laura’s alleged injuries and Laura’s running away which met the criteria for a special relationship creating “justifiable reliance” on intervention by county authorities:

… [T]o establish that the government voluntarily assumed a duty to the plaintiff beyond what it generally owes to the public, the plaintiff must establish: ” ‘(1) an assumption by the municipality, through promises or actions, of an affirmative duty to act on behalf of the party who was injured; (2) knowledge on the part of the municipality’s agents that inaction could lead to harm; (3) some form of direct contact between the municipality’s agents and the injured party; and (4) that party’s justifiable reliance on the municipality’s affirmative undertaking’ ” … .

“[A]ll four elements must be present for a special duty to attach” … .

… [T]he justifiable reliance element “provides the essential causative link between the ‘special duty’ assumed by the municipality and the alleged injury. Indeed, at the heart of most of these ‘special duty’ cases is the unfairness that the courts have perceived in precluding recovery when a municipality’s voluntary undertaking has lulled the injured party into a false sense of security and has thereby induced [the injured party] either to relax [their] own vigilance or to forego other available avenues of protection” …

Months before her death, both CPS [Child Protective Services] and APS [Adult Protective Services] investigated the reports that Laura was being abused, concluded that those reports were unfounded, closed their investigations, and advised Richard that the investigations were closed and would not be reopened without new information. … Richard “did not in fact relax his own vigilance inasmuch as he made two follow-up calls to the APS caseworker asking her to reopen the investigation, and he was not induced to forego other avenues of relief” … . Similarly, the Sheriff’s deputies took no action that could have induced reliance. Maldovan v County of Erie, 2022 NY Slip Op 06632, Ct App 11-22-22

Practice Point: Under the “special relationship” theory, to hold a municipality liable for failing to intervene to protect a plaintiff from injury by family members, the plaintiff must demonstrate a special relationship had developed with the county such that the plaintiff could justifiably rely on intervention by the municipality. No such ‘justifiable reliance” was demonstrated in this case where a developmentally disabled young woman was tortured and murdered by her mother and brother. County authorities had investigated allegations plaintiff’s decedent had been injured, but the allegations were deemed unfounded. The fact that county sheriff’s had returned plaintiff’s decedent to her home after she had run away because of an argument with her mother was not enough.

 

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