Opinion
Argued November 17, 1988
Decided December 22, 1988
Appeal from the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the Fourth Judicial Department, James B. Kane, J.
John P. Cox and Jane C. Hettrick for defendants-appellants. Neil E. Garvey for plaintiff-appellant.
Linda L. Kaumeyer for respondents.
MEMORANDUM.
The order of the Appellate Division should be reversed, with costs, and defendants-respondents' motion for summary judgment denied.
A common carrier owes a duty to an alighting passenger to stop at a place where the passenger may safely disembark and leave the area (see, Fagan v Atlantic Coast Line R.R. Co., 220 N.Y. 301, 306-307; Blye v Manhattan Bronx Surface Tr. Operating Auth., 124 A.D.2d 106, 109, 111, affd 72 N.Y.2d 888). On a review of the record, questions of fact exist as to whether respondents breached this duty, whether the breach was a proximate cause of plaintiff's injuries, and whether plaintiff was comparatively negligent (see, Keener v Tilton, 283 N.Y. 454, 455-456). Contrary to respondents' contention, plaintiff's conduct was not an intervening and superseding cause as a matter of law, since there is a factual dispute over whether there was any safe alternative route which plaintiff could have taken (cf., Blye v Manhattan Bronx Surface Tr. Operating Auth., 72 N.Y.2d 888, supra; Rodriguez v Manhattan Bronx Surface Tr. Operating Auth., 117 A.D.2d 541, lv denied 68 N.Y.2d 602).
Chief Judge WACHTLER and Judges SIMONS, KAYE, ALEXANDER, TITONE, HANCOCK, JR., and BELLACOSA concur in memorandum.
Order reversed, etc.