SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department

14 

CA 13-00976 

PRESENT: SCUDDER, P.J., CENTRA, LINDLEY, SCONIERS, AND DEJOSEPH, JJ. 

 

ADAM VILLAR, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, 

V MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

COUNTY OF ERIE, DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT. 

(APPEAL NO. 1.) 

 

CONNORS & VILARDO, LLP, BUFFALO (PAUL A. WOODARD OF COUNSEL), FOR

PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT.

MICHAEL A. SIRAGUSA, COUNTY ATTORNEY, BUFFALO (KENNETH R. KIRBY OF

COUNSEL), FOR DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT. 

 

Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Erie County (Shirley

Troutman, J.), entered April 3, 2013. The order granted the motion of

defendant to dismiss the complaint. 

It is hereby ORDERED that the order so appealed from is 

unanimously modified on the law by denying defendant’s motion in part

and reinstating the complaint insofar as the first cause of action

alleges that defendant breached its duty to protect plaintiff from

foreseeable harm caused to him by other inmates at the Erie County

Correctional Facility, and as modified the order is affirmed without

costs. 

Memorandum: Plaintiff commenced this action seeking damages for

injuries he sustained as a result of having been sexually assaulted

twice by another inmate at the Erie County Correctional Facility, a

county jail maintained by defendant (see County Law § 217) and

operated by the Erie County Sheriff, who has been sued by plaintiff in

a separate action (see Villar v Howard, ___ AD3d ___ [Mar. 20, 2015]),

decided herewith. By the order in appeal No. 1, Supreme Court granted

defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a

cause of action (see CPLR 3211 [a] [7]), on various alternative

grounds. By the order in appeal No. 2, the court denied plaintiff’s

motion for leave to amend the complaint to assert a cause of action

pursuant to 42 USC § 1983. We note at the outset that we affirm the

order in appeal No. 2 for the reasons set forth in our decision in the

companion case (see Villar, ___ AD3d at ___). 

We agree with plaintiff in appeal No. 1 that the court erred in

granting defendant’s motion and dismissing the complaint in its

entirety on the ground that it owed no duty of care to plaintiff, who

was being held in jail on a pending criminal charge at the time of the
-2- 14 

CA 13-00976 

assaults. It is well settled that “[a] municipality owes a duty to

inmates in correctional facilities to safeguard them from foreseeable

assaults [by] other inmates” (Brown v City of New York, 95 AD3d 1051,

1052; see Smith v County of Albany, 12 AD3d 912, 913; see generally

Sanchez v State of New York, 99 NY2d 247, 252-253). “[T]his duty does

not render the municipality an insurer of inmate safety, and

negligence cannot be established by the mere occurrence of an inmate

assault . . . Rather, ‘the scope of the [municipality’s] duty to

protect inmates is limited to risks of harm that are reasonably

foreseeable’ ” (Barnette v City of New York, 96 AD3d 700, 701, quoting

Sanchez, 99 NY2d at 253). We therefore modify the order in appeal No.

1 by denying defendant’s motion in part and reinstating that part of

the first cause of action alleging that defendant breached the duty it

owed to plaintiff to protect him from foreseeable assaults committed

by other inmates.

We further conclude, for the reasons set forth in the companion

case, that the court erred at this juncture in determining as a matter

of law that defendant is immune from liability because its alleged

negligence arises from discretionary acts for which it is entitled to

governmental immunity (see Villar, ___ AD3d at ___). 

The court, however, properly granted those parts of defendant’s

motion to dismiss the second cause of action and that part of the

first cause of action seeking to hold defendant vicariously liable for

the negligence of the Sheriff or the Sheriff’s deputies. Defendant

“may not be held responsible for the negligent acts of the Sheriff and

his deputies on the theory of respondeat superior, in the absence of a

local law assuming such responsibility” (Marashian v City of Utica,

214 AD2d 1034, 1034; see Trisvan v County of Monroe, 26 AD3d 875, 876,

lv dismissed 6 NY3d 891), and here there is no such local law (see

Mosey v County of Erie, 117 AD3d 1381, 1385; cf. Barr v County of

Albany, 50 NY2d 247, 255-257). Finally, the court properly granted

that part of defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint insofar as it

seeks an award of punitive damages, which are not recoverable against

the State or its political subdivisions (see Clark-Fitzpatrick, Inc. v

Long Is. R.R. Co., 70 NY2d 382, 386; Drisdom v Niagara Falls Mem. Med.

Ctr., 53 AD3d 1142, 1142). 

Entered: March 20, 2015 Frances E. Cafarell

Clerk of the Court