Belair v. State — 241 N.Y. 552

Majority

p. 552

Bell Belair, as Administratrix of the Estate of Harry Baker, Deceased, Appellant, v. State of New York, Respondent.

Headnote

State ■—• negligence ■— highways — defect in State highway — claim against State for death of passengers in automobile dismissed.

Belair v. State, 212 App. Div. 206 , affirmed.

(Argued October 15, 1925;

decided November 24, 1925.)

Appeal from a judgment, entered March 28, 1925, upon an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the third judicial department, reversing a judgment in favor of plaintiff entered upon an award of the Court of Claims and directing a dismissal of a claim against the State for the death of plaintiff’s intestate, alleged to have been occasioned through a defect in a State highway. It appeared that while intestate was a passenger in an automobile traveling upon the highway between Canton and Potsdam, the driver turned to the right on the dirt shoulder of the road to pass an approaching car and when he turned back one of the rear wheels of the car dropped into a hole causing it to swerve so that

p. 553

the driver lost control and the car ran into the ditch on the other side of the road.

Wordsworth B. Matter son and William F. Quinn for appellant.

Albert Ottinger, Attorney-General (.Albert J. Danaher of counsel), for respondent. ■

Judgment affirmed, with costs; no opinion.

Concur: Hiscock, Ch. J., McLaughlin, Andrews and Lehman, JJ. Dissenting: Cardozo, Pound and Crane, JJ.