Brown v. Broome County

• Decision Date: 17 November 1960
• Citation: 207 N.Y.S.2d 657,8 N.Y.2d 330,170 N.E.2d 666
• Parties: , 170 N.E.2d 666, 83 A.L.R.2d 952 Dorothy BROWN, Individually and as Guardian ad Litem of Robert Brown et al., Infants, Respondent, v. BROOME COUNTY, Appellant.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

Page 657

207 N.Y.S.2d 657

8 N.Y.2d 330, 170 N.E.2d 666, 83

A.L.R.2d 952

Dorothy BROWN, Individually and as Guardian ad Litem of

Robert Brown et al., Infants, Respondent, v. BROOME COUNTY, Appellant.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Nov. 17, 1960.

Charles P. O'Brien and Justin C. Flannigan, Binghamton, for appellant.

William K. English, Johnson City, for respondent.

BURKE, Judge.

The trial court set aside a verdict of a jury and dismissed the complaint as a matter of law in this action brought against the county for an alleged unauthorized autopsy performed at the direction of a Coroner, over the objections of the plaintiff, on the body of her husband. The body of the deceased, a railroad worker whose duties included assisting in the assembling and coupling of freight cars, was found between tracks in a railroad yard with the left hand partially severed. The Appellate Division has reversed the judgment on the law and the facts, and directed judgment for the plaintiff, finding that under the circumstances of this case the statutory standard of section 770 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (i. e., reasonableness of the Coroner's conduct) was a fact question for the jury.

The appellant's principal argument that the reasonableness of the conduct herein is simply a question of law misconstrues the meaning of the statutes. Although the statutes governing the performance of autopsies grant broad discretion to Coroners, the power is limited to deaths which indicate a possibility of criminality or suicide. The exercise of such discretion will generally be upheld because it is apparent that a court, in most cases, can readily determine whether the Coroner had 'reasonable ground to suspect' that the death was occasioned 'by the act of another by criminal means' or that decedent is a suicide. Code of Criminal Procedure, § 773, read with Public Health Law, § 4210. Occasionally a court may find that the evidence shows an abuse of discretion as a matter of law, but such instances are rare. There are, however, many cases, and this is one, where the question of the reasonableness of the grounds for directing an autopsy may not be found to be absolutely right or wrong. It falls in an area where there is a want of full proof. Then the question of reasonableness cannot be treated as a problem of law alone. When, as here, the nature of the work, the duties of the deceased, the site of the work and the scene of death disclose conditions which often accompany...