In H* v. New York City Transit Authority, the Appellate Division, Second Department, upheld a jury verdict in favor of the Transit Authority and its bus driver, B, effectively dismissing the plaintiff’s personal injury claims.
H, a passenger in a van, alleged she was injured in a 2017 collision with a city bus at a Brooklyn intersection. She sued the NYCTA and B, claiming negligence. At trial, the jury found B was not negligent, and the court entered judgment accordingly. H appealed, arguing in part that the trial court erred by instructing the jury on the “emergency doctrine”—a legal principle that can excuse a driver’s conduct if they’re faced with a sudden and unexpected situation not of their own making.
The AD2 agreed that the emergency doctrine charge was inappropriate. H's theory of liability focused on B’s conduct before any emergency arose—specifically, how she approached the intersection—not on how she reacted to a sudden crisis. Therefore, the emergency doctrine didn’t apply.
However, the AD2 concluded that the error did not affect the outcome and opined that, even without the emergency instruction, the jury would likely have reached the same verdict. Accordingly, the judgment in favor of the Transit Authority and B was affirmed.
In short: the jury found no negligence, the emergency doctrine charge was a misstep, but not a fatal one—and the outcome was undisturbed.
Charge that to experience?
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DECISION