Case Name: Robert Thomas, Appellant, v. State of New York, Respondent
Court: New York Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1979-04-03
Citations: 46 N.Y.2d 1043
Docket Number: Claim No. 60123
Parties: Robert Thomas, Appellant, v State of New York, Respondent.
Judges: 
Reporter: New York Reports
Volume: 46
Pages: 1043–1046

Head Matter:
Robert Thomas, Appellant, v State of New York, Respondent.
(Claim No. 60123.)
Argued February 7, 1979;
decided April 3, 1979.
APPEARANCES OF COUNSEL
Harold A. Seidenberg for appellant.
Robert Abrams, Attorney-General (Jeremiah Jochnowitz and Ruth Kessler Toch of counsel), for respondent.

Opinion:
OPINION OF THE COURT
Memorandum.
From our review of the facts disclosed by the record (see NY Const, art VI, § 3, subd a; CPLR 5501, subd [b]), and for the reasons stated in the opinion of Judge Dorothea E. Donaldson in the Court of Claims and the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Louis M. Greenblott at the Appellate Division, we conclude that in this case the weight of the evidence supports the determination reached by the Court of Claims. In that connection, we bear in mind that a police officer who arrests an intoxicated driver assumes the duty of exercising the care reasonably required in the circumstances to assure the safety of a person in that condition (Parvi v City of Kingston, 41 NY2d 553, 559-560). Accordingly, the order of the Appellate Division should be reversed and the judgment of the Court of Claims reinstated.