Sauer v. Hebrew Institute of Long Island, Inc.
| Decision Date | 27 November 1962 |
| Citation | 17 A.D.2d 245,233 N.Y.S.2d 1008 |
| Parties | Neil SAUER, and infant under 14 years of age, by Ann Sauer, his guardian ad litem; and Irving Sauer, Plaintiffs-Respondents, v. HEBREW INSTITUTE OF LONG ISLAND, INC., Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
Carl J. Silverstein, Monticello, of counsel (Turetzky & Cohen, Monticello), for appellant. Joseph R. Apfel, New York City, for respondents.
Before RABIN, J. P., and VALENTE, EAGER, STEUER and BERGAN, JJ.
The infant plaintiff, a camper at defendant's summer camp, was injured while playing a game supervised by defendant's personnel. The infant was 13 years old and the game was a 'water fight' between groups of campers of similar age, played on a grass-covered area in which opposing groups of boys doused each other with water from cups or water pistols.
In running away from an opponent, the infant plaintiff slipped on the grass and struck his head on a concrete walk at the side of the grass area. After a trial before the court without a jury, an award of $15,000 has been made to infant plaintiff and nominal damages to his father.
In our view of the record, this result is not warranted. The defendant, as the operator of a camp for boys, could not reasonably be made responsible in damages for the consequences of every possible hazard of play activity. It was required, rather, to guard against dangers which ought to have been foreseen in the exercise of reasonable care (Klein v. Hoffman, 15 A.D.2d 899, 225 N.Y.S.2d 628; Weinstein v. Tunis Lake Properties, Inc., 15 Misc.2d 432, 181 N.Y.S.2d 916, aff'd 9 A.D.2d 960, 196 N.Y.S.2d 605, app. den. 10 A.D.2d 711, 199 N.Y.S.2d 437).
It has not been demonstrated that the water fight game was more hazardous than any ordinary camp activity involving running. It was inevitable in the game that the grass would become wet; and, indeed, in any such game among 13-year-old boys, that there would be tumbles and falls whether it was wet or dry.
To impose liability in this situation is to interdict the game itself, which in turn would so sterilize camping activity for boys as to render it sedentary. It would take a keen sense of the prescient to envisage that in running in the game the infant plaintiff would slip at the very point in the area where there was a concrete walk. Nor is it, indeed, clearly demonstrated that, in view of the infant plaintiff's bare feet, the wetness of the grass...
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Aberger v. Camp Loyaltown, Inc.
...at 241, 386 N.Y.S.2d 564, 352 N.E.2d 868 ).On the issue of foreseeability, the dissent relies upon Sauer v. Hebrew Inst. of Long Is., 17 A.D.2d 245, 233 N.Y.S.2d 1008 (1st Dept. 1962) ; affd 13 N.Y.2d 913, 243 N.Y.S.2d 859, 193 N.E.2d 642 (1963) and Fintzi v. New Jersey YMHA–YWHA Camps, 97 ......
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Rutter v. Northeastern Beaver County School Dist.
...altogether. Sauer v. Hebrew Inst. of Long Island, 33 Misc.2d 785, 227 N.Y.S.2d 535 (1962), reversed on other grounds, 17 A.D.2d 245, 233 N.Y.S.2d 1008 (1962). there is another aspect of the practice sessions, also ignored by the majority, that is against a finding that appellant voluntarily......
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Ward v. State
...v. Topping, 18 A.D.2d 618, 234 N.Y.S.2d 724, aff'd, 13 N.Y.2d 1049, 245 N.Y.S.2d 770, 195 N.E.2d 455; Sauer v. Hebrew Institute of Long Island, Inc., 17 A.D.2d 245, 233 N.Y.S.2d 1008, aff'd, 13 N.Y.2d 913, 243 N.Y.S.2d 859, 193 N.E.2d 642; Flynn v. City of New York, 13 A.D.2d 237, 216 N.Y.S......
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Rutter v. Northeastern Beaver County School Dist.
...altogether. Sauer v. Hebrew Inst. of Long Island, 33 Misc.2d 785, 227 N.Y.S.2d 535 (1962), reversed on other grounds, 17 A.D.2d 245, 233 N.Y.S.2d 1008 (1962). Finally, there is another aspect of the practice sessions, also ignored by the majority, that is against a finding that appellant vo......