Opinion
April 8, 1999
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Bronx County (Lucindo Suarez, J.).
While plaintiffs are not collaterally estopped from litigating a General Obligations Law § 11-106 negligence claim against defendants, the issue of defendants' negligence not having been fully litigated by plaintiffs at the 1994 trial of their General Municipal Law § 205-e cause of action, leave to amend the complaint to assert a General Obligations Law § 11-106 negligence claim against defendants was nonetheless properly denied. As of October 9, 1996, the effective date of General Obligations Law § 11-106, which amended General Municipal Law § 205-e to permit police officers and firefighters to recover for line-of-duty injuries on a negligence theory, defendant Emergency Medical Services was an agency of plaintiff's employer, the City of New York — EMS and the agency with which plaintiffs were employed having merged with City agencies respectively on March 17, 1996 and April 30, 1995 — and General Obligations Law § 11-106, although creating a negligence cause of action in favor of certain municipal employees for line-of-duty injuries, specifically precludes the assertion of such a cause against, the employees' municipal employer and fellow municipal employees (General Obligations Law § 11-106; General Municipal Law § 205-e).
Concur — Rosenberger, J. P., Williams, Tom and Mazzarelli, JJ.