Opinion
2014-05-1
Seferiana GUTIERREZ, etc., Plaintiff–Respondent, v. HOYT TRANSPORTATION CORP., et al., Defendants–Appellants.
Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, LLP, New York (Allison Snyder of counsel), for appellants. Thomas Torto, New York (Jason Levine of counsel), for respondent.
Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, LLP, New York (Allison Snyder of counsel), for appellants. Thomas Torto, New York (Jason Levine of counsel), for respondent.
TOM, J.P., FRIEDMAN, ANDRIAS, SAXE, DeGRASSE, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Mitchell J. Danziger, J.), entered July 18, 2012, which, insofar as appealed from, denied defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
Plaintiff's infant daughter, Deyandely, was struck by a school bus as she ran across the Grand Concourse while fleeing a melee that had erupted on the sidewalk near where she had been walking. The bus driver's deposition testimony that there was no traffic around him or in or in any of the north- or southbound lanes to his left, which Deyandely had crossed before colliding with the bus, raises an issue of fact as to whether he failed to see that which he should have seen with the proper use of his senses ( see Persaud v. Shark Patrol, 267 A.D.2d 41, 42, 699 N.Y.S.2d 282 [1st Dept.1999];see also Ohlhausen v. City of New York, 73 A.D.3d 89, 92, 898 N.Y.S.2d 120 [1st Dept.2010] ).
Defendants' reliance on the emergency doctrine in support of their contention that, with only seconds to react and take evasive measures, the driver acted reasonably and prudently as a matter of law, is predicated on the contention that the emergency with which the driver was confronted arose at the moment he perceived children in the street. The issue is whether he should have seen the children sooner. Thus, whether the driver was confronted with “a sudden and unforeseen occurrence” to which the emergency doctrine is applicable is a question for the factfinder ( see Rivera v. New York City Tr. Auth., 77 N.Y.2d 322, 327, 567 N.Y.S.2d 629, 569 N.E.2d 432 [1991] ).