Court Opinion

ID: 9467868
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:58:19.874063+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:33.929252
License: Public Domain

*253MANSFIELD, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
In concurring in Judge Goettel’s carefully considered and well-reasoned opinion, I wish to note in response to Judge Newman’s dissent that as far as I am concerned it has not disregarded any relevant New York court decisions cited by the late Judge Dooling and it represents as reasonable a prediction of how New York courts would decide the issue before us as can be made under the circumstances.
In my view the dissent is premised on the erroneous assumption that the plaintiffs here were “non-negligent” and that their injuries are attributable solely to joint negligence on the part of the two defendants. However, the plaintiffs here were at fault for not having seat-belted themselves, which caused a substantial part of their injuries. Had they belted themselves they might well have avoided any injuries from the negligent door-latch design charged against VWAG. Indeed, had VWAG’s negligence been charged as the sole cause of plaintiff’s injuries, plaintiffs’ own contributory negligence would have precluded any recovery against VWAG under New York law as it stood at the time of the accident. Plaintiffs are saved from dismissal only because of our adherence to the ruling of the New York Court of Appeals in Spier v. Barker, 35 N.Y.2d 444, 451, 363 N.Y.S.2d 916, 921, 323 N.E.2d 164, 168 (1974). “Traditional rules of negligence” have not therefore been misapplied.