In the past term, the Court of Appeals issued four decisions that further addressed a wide range of unresolved issues in tort law. In Rodriguez v. City of New York, 31 N.Y.3d 312 (2018), the court addressed whether a plaintiff must demonstrate the absence of comparative negligence to obtain partial summary judgment on the issue of a defendant’s liability. In Contact Chiropractic, P.C. v. N.Y.C. Transit Authority, 31 N.Y.3d 187 (2018), the court considered whether a claim for no-fault benefits against a self-insured entity is governed by the three-year statute of limitations applicable to statutory causes of action under CPLR 214(2) or the six-year limitations period applicable to breach of contract claims under CPLR 213(2). The court, in Connolly v. Long Island Power Authority, 30 N.Y.3d 719 (2018), revisited the often elusive distinction between “governmental” and “proprietary” functions, in the context of the functions of the Long Island Power Authority. Finally, in Forman v. Henkin, 30 N.Y.3d 656 (2018), the court sought to resolve a split amongst lower courts concerning the proper standard to apply to a discovery dispute regarding documents and information maintained on a social media account.

‘Rodriguez’

In Rodriguez v. City of New York, the plaintiff, an employee of the New York City Department of Sanitation, commenced a negligence action against the city of New York after he sustained a serious spinal injury during the course of his employment. As plaintiff and coworkers were preparing to equip a sanitation truck with tire chains and plows for snow removal, a coworker was backing the sanitation truck into a garage bay and lost control of the truck, which collided with a parked car. The parked car, in turn, struck plaintiff and pinned him against a tire rack.