[DOWNLOAD] "Incorporated Village Flower Hill v. State New York" by Supreme Court of New York ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Incorporated Village Flower Hill v. State New York
- Author : Supreme Court of New York
- Release Date : January 04, 1959
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 68 KB
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[7 A.D.2d 940 Page 940] Appeal by the appellant State of New York from a money judgment based on its alleged negligence in failing to provide proper
adequate drainage of a State highway system. In 1954 the State contracted for reconstruction of a portion of the North Hempstead
Turnpike in Nassau County. As part of the work, existing drainage facilities were changed by including more drainage territory
and by the installation of a 72-inch concrete culvert under the highway. For over a year after completion there were no trouble
or complaints as to the working or adequacy of the system but on August 12-13, 1955, what was known as "Hurricane Connie"
descended upon the locality leaving 8.2 inches rainfall which resulted in an overflow and damage to two streets of the claimant
village in the amount of the judgment herein. All of the witnesses agreed that it was an unprecedented storm. The court found
the State negligent and its negligence the sole proximate cause of the damage to the village streets. On this appeal, the
State contends that the findings were contrary to the weight of the evidence and further that the village cannot maintain
an action for damages against the State arising out of its governmental capacity. The question of recovering damages to municipal
property used in governmental facilities was not before the lower court and is raised for the first time on this appeal. Section
8 of the Court of Claims Act constitutes a waiver of immunity from liability by the State and subdivision 2 of section 9 (of
the same act) gives jurisdiction to the court to hear and determine the claim of any municipality against the State for the
torts of its officers or employees. It makes no distinction between property held in its governmental or in its proprietary
capacity. The State has been held liable to private individuals for failure to provide adequate culverts. (Logan v. State
of New York, 162 Misc. 793, affd. 254 App. Div. 410.) Under similar circumstances it has been held that a municipality is
entitled to recover. (Town of Vienna v. State of New York, 203 Misc. 1053, 1058-1059.) The right of the claimant to bring
this action being established, we turn to the question of liability of the State for negligence [7 A.D.2d 940 Page 941]