Court Opinion

ID: 5848278
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-01-12 23:52:46.509175+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:44:00.040063
License: Public Domain

Mahoney, P. J. (concurring).
Mahoney, P.J., and Weiss, J., concur in the following memorandum by Mahoney, P. J. While we concur in the majority’s holding that the order denying both plaintiff’s and defendants’ motions for summary judgment must be affirmed, we cannot accept the view that subdivision (a) of section 1210 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law does not create a class of persons entitled to be protected by the statute, and, further, that plaintiff’s decedent is not among its membership. In recommending the enactment of section 1210, the Joint Legislative Committee on Motor Vehicle Problems stated that the proposed law was “designed to obviate the risk of a vehicle moving from the place where it was left parked and possibly injuring the person or property of others as well as itself being damaged. It serves to lessen the likelihood of theft” (NY Legis Doc, 1954, No. 36, pp 106-107). Since at common law the owner was not liable, as a matter of law, for the negligence of a thief, on the basis that the use of the car by the thief intervened between the occurrence of the negligence of the owner and the unskillful operation of the car by the thief (Walter v Bond, 267 App Div 779, affd 292 NY 574; Mann v Parshall, 229 App Div 366), the statute changed the common law and made it clear that the intervention of an unauthorized person no longer operates to break the chain of causation. Where, as here, the legislative intent to protect the public generally from the consequences that foreseeably flow from unauthorized use of motor vehicles is clear, and, again as here, the violation of subdivision (a) of section 1210 is undisputed, it is patently unfair to deny to plaintiff the evidentiary weight of such violation and leave him to the more vigorous burden of establishing common-law negligence.