The owners of an upstate dairy farm from which a calf strayed onto a road, triggering a sequence of events that resulted in a fatal collision, are not liable for a woman’s death, a divided state appeals court ruled.

The 3-1 majority of an Appellate Division, Fourth Department, panel found the calf did not directly cause the accident in which Holly Hain was struck and killed by another vehicle after Hain got out of her car in an apparent attempt to help the wayward animal.