Case Name: Samuel Plotkin, Public Administrator of Kings County, as Administrator of the Estate of Janusz Denisiuk, Deceased, Respondent, v. State of New York, Appellant
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1993-10-28
Citations: 197 A.D.2d 498
Docket Number: Claim No. 76147
Parties: Samuel Plotkin, Public Administrator of Kings County, as Administrator of the Estate of Janusz Denisiuk, Deceased, Respondent, v State of New York, Appellant.
Judges: 
Reporter: Appellate Division Reports
Volume: 197
Pages: 498–499

Head Matter:
Samuel Plotkin, Public Administrator of Kings County, as Administrator of the Estate of Janusz Denisiuk, Deceased, Respondent, v State of New York, Appellant.
(Claim No. 76147.)
[603 NYS2d 40]

Opinion:
—Judgment, Court of Claims (Gerard Weisberg, J.), entered June 1, 1992, after trial, in claimant's favor in the amount of $683,687.29, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
In this action for wrongful death and conscious pain and suffering (33 USC § 905 [b]) arising from the accidental death by asphyxiation of claimant's decedent aboard a United States owned training vessel under the control of the State University of New York's Merchant Marine Academy, the trial court properly determined that the State was responsible for taking preventive safety measures with regard to the carbon dioxide cable that released the gas which caused decedent's death (46 CFR 310.4 [e] [2] [i]; Parks v United States, 784 F2d 20, 27-28).
The projections as to the future earnings of decedent, who had left his wife and children in Poland seven years earlier to work in the United States and had visited them during that period only once, were correctly premised on decedent's con tinuing to work in this country, and thus the damages awarded were not excessive under the circumstances. Concur —Carro, J. R, Rosenberger, Ellerin and Kassal, JJ.