A recent post regarding an automobile chain-reaction accident stirred up a lot of discussion here at New York Civil Law (see post here). In Park v. Kim, the Appellate Division, Second Department revisited a similar situation, but ironically not citing Ali v. Daily Pita Bakeries (the case that raised the hackles of a few NYCL readers).
In Park, defendant Park apparently stopped his automobile short on a roadway (unidentified in the decision) and defendant Kam was able to stop behind Park without hitting his automobile. Defendant Kim rear-ended Lam (the one who successfully stopped behind Park), causing Kam (the second in line) to crash into Park (you following this?). The defendants asserted cross-claims against Park his negligence proximately caused the accident. The Court disagreed, observing that since Lam was able to safely bring his vehicle to a complete stop behind the Park vehicle prior to the collision, any purported negligence on the part of Park was not a proximate cause of the collision or the injuries. Where's the citation to Ali?
More importantly, it appears that the Second Department is cutting off liability in a chain-reaction automobile accident where the automobile behind the lead automobile is able to successfully stop without hitting the lead automobile, irrespective of the negligence of how the lead automobile driver acted.
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