Bynum v. Camp Bisco, LLC

• Decision Date: 07 January 2016
• Citation: 22 N.Y.S.3d 677,135 A.D.3d 1060
• Parties: Deborah BYNUM, Individually and as Guardian of the Person and Property of Heather Bynum, Respondent, v. CAMP BISCO, LLC, et al., Defendants, and Town of Duanesburg et al., Appellants.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

135 A.D.3d 1060

22 N.Y.S.3d 677

Deborah BYNUM, Individually and as Guardian of the Person and Property of Heather Bynum, Respondent,

v. CAMP BISCO, LLC, et al., Defendants,andTown of Duanesburg et al., Appellants.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, New York.

Jan. 7, 2016.

Napierski, VanDenburgh, Napierski & O'Connor, LLP, Albany (Mark J. Dolan of counsel), for Town of Duanesburg, appellant.

Shantz & Belkin, Latham (M. Randolph Belkin of counsel), for County of Schenectady, appellant.

LaFave, Wein & Frament, PLLC, Guilderland (Jason A. Frament of counsel), for respondent.

Before: PETERS, P.J., LAHTINEN, GARRY and ROSE, JJ.

ROSE, J.

Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court (Versaci, J.), entered January 26, 2015 in Schenectady County, which denied motions by defendant Town of Duanesburg and defendant County of Schenectady for summary judgment dismissing the complaint against them.

Plaintiff's daughter, Heather Bynum, attended a music festival known as Camp Bisco, held in the Town of Duanesburg, Schenectady County, where she ingested a harmful substance and sustained significant injuries. Thereafter, plaintiff commenced this action on behalf of Bynum against, among others, defendants Town of Duanesburg and County of Schenectady (hereinafter collectively referred to as defendants), alleging that they negligently issued the necessary permits for Camp Bisco because they knew or should have known that the permit applications significantly underestimated the anticipated number of attendees, resulting in a level of medical staffing at the festival inadequate to promptly respond to Bynum's condition.¹ After joinder of issue, defendants separately moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint against them, asserting governmental immunity from tort liability. Supreme Court thereafter denied defendants' motions, finding them to be premature, and further finding that issues of fact existed as to whether defendants assumed a special duty to Bynum. Defendants now appeal, and we reverse.

Where, as here, a municipality engages in a quintessential governmental function such as the issuance of permits, even if it does so negligently, the municipality is immune from liability unless it owed "a special duty to the injured person, in contrast to a general duty owed to the public" (McLean v. City of New York, 12 N.Y.3d 194, 199, 878 N.Y.S.2d 238, 905 N.E.2d 1167 [2009] [internal quotation marks and citation omitted]; see Applewhite v. Accuhealth, Inc., 21 N.Y.3d 420, 426, 972 N.Y.S.2d 169, 995 N.E.2d 131 [2013] ; Rickson v. Town of Schuyler Falls, 263 A.D.2d 863, 864–865, 694 N.Y.S.2d 213 [1999] ). As relevant here, to prove a special duty to Bynum, plaintiff must establish "[t]he elements of a special relationship includ[ing] ... direct contact between the municipality's agents and [Bynum], and [Bynum's] justifiable reliance ... on the municipality's affirmative promise to act" (DeCrescente v. Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany, 89 A.D.3d 1272, 1274, 932 N.Y.S.2d 575 [2011], lv. dismissed and denied 18 N.Y.3d 943, 944 N.Y.S.2d 466, 967 N.E.2d 690 [2012] ; see Applewhite v. Accuhealth, Inc., 21 N.Y.3d at 430–431, 972 N.Y.S.2d 169, 995 N.E.2d 131 ; Cuffy v. City of New York, 69 N.Y.2d 255, 260, 513 N.Y.S.2d 372, 505 N.E.2d 937 [1987] ).

Viewing the pleadings and submissions in the light most favorable to plaintiff and providing her with every favorable inference (see Andrew R. Mancini Assoc., Inc. v. Mary Imogene Bassett Hosp., 80 A.D.3d 933, 935, 914 N.Y.S.2d 449 [2011] ; Walton v. Albany Community Dev. Agency, 279 A.D.2d 93, 94–95, 718 N.Y.S.2d 456 [2001] ), we must agree with defendants that plaintiff's complaint and bill of particulars are devoid of factual allegations that Bynum had any direct contact with defendants, or that she relied upon any affirmative promise that defendants' agents would keep her safe while she attended Camp Bisco. Indeed, plaintiff claims only that Bynum relied upon the representations "contained in any and all applications for permits for Camp Bisco," which were completed by the festival organizers, not by defendants. In response to the motion, plaintiff made no additional factual allegations regarding either of these two required elements. Rather, she attempts to excuse her facially inadequate pleadings by relying upon our decision in Boland v. State of New York, 218 A.D.2d 235, 241–242, 638 N.Y.S.2d 500 (1996), where we held that, when a statutory scheme clearly imposes a duty upon a government to protect a discrete class of individuals, of which the injured person is a member, it is unnecessary to prove direct contact and reliance in order to establish a special relationship between a municipality and the injured person.

The record here, however, makes clear that our holding in Boland does not apply to plaintiff's claim against the Town, as her allegations make no mention of any statutory scheme pursuant to which the Town acted to approve a proposed amendment to the special use permit for the festival site. As to plaintiff's claim against the County, the pleadings allege only that the County violated specific provisions of the State Sanitary Code by granting a mass gathering permit based upon an application containing attendance estimations...