A few months ago, we mentioned that New York’s highest court was hearing a case that may change the way some personal injury cases are handled in Buffalo. Well, the Court of Appeals has made its decision in Trupia v. New York Central School District, and the way similar cases are handled in Buffalo will now be changing.
The key issue here was the extent that the concept of “assumption of risk” could be applied. In many incidents involving sports or recreational activities that are voluntarily participated in, the defendant is able to have any personal injury case dismissed because the injured person assumed the risk of participating in that activity.
Some parts of New York State, including the Buffalo area, recently had begun applying this concept more broadly to include a wider range of voluntary activities. In Trupia v. New York Central School District, for example, a child was injured after sliding down a banister, and the defense sought dismissal of the case under the theory that because the child had chosen to do so, it was an assumed risk.
The Court of Appeals, however, found that the assumption of risk should not spread so far afield from athletic activities to include what it termed “horseplay.” While the child may have some responsibility for the injury, how far that responsibility extended should be determined under New York’s comparative negligence laws, which would allow a jury to weigh the responsibility of each party and assign a percentage of blame.
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