In a line of cases culminating in Sorichetti v City of New York (
The violence that led to plaintiffs’ injuries originated in a landlord-tenant dispute between Joseph and Eleanor Cuffy, who occupied the upper apartment of their two-family house in The Bronx, and Joel and Barbara Aitkins, who had leased the ground-floor apartment from the Cuffys for approximately a year. Even before the incidents that are directly involved in this action, there had bеen episodes between the two couples which the police had been called to mediate. Eleanor Cuffy had previously filed a formal criminal complaint against the Aitkinses, and a prior effort at supervised informal dispute resolution had terminated in an arbitrator’s order dirеcting Ms. Cuffy and the Aitkinses to avoid further contact. This history of repeated confrontation and police intervention forms the backdrop for the events at issue in the trial of the Cuffys’ claims against the City.
Viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiffs (see, Derdia
In frustration, Joseph Cuffy, who had been to see the police four or five times before, went to the local precinct with a neighbor at аbout 11:00 that night to ask for protection for his family. Cuffy spoke with Lieutenant Moretti, the desk officer, and told him that the Aitkinses had threatened his family’s safety. According to both Cuffy and his neighbor, Cuffy specifically told Moretti that he intended to move his family out of its upper floor apartment immediately if an arrеst was not made.
At approximately 7:00 p.m. on the following evening, the Cuffys’ son Ralston, who did not live with his parents, came to their house for a visit. Immediately after Ralston alit from his car, Joel Aitkins accosted him and the two men had an altercation, which culminated in Ralston’s being struck with a baseball bat. Eleanor Cuffy, who observed the fight from her upstairs window, and another son, Cyril, rushed to Ralston’s rescue. Barbara Aitkins then joined in the attack, slashing at both Eleanor and Cyril with a knife. Joseph Cuffy, who had come home from work at about 6:30 and then gone to his neighbor’s house, arrived at the scene while the fight was in progress, but was not in time to avert the harm. By the time
Eleanor, Cyril and Ralston Cuffy thereafter commenced this action against the City, alleging that the police had a "special duty” to protect them because of the promise that Lieutenant Moretti had made on the night preceding the incident (see, Sorichetti v City of New York, supra). The ensuing trial ended in a verdict awarding each of the plaintiffs substantial damages. The City appealed to the Appellate Division, which unanimously affirmed the judgment, without opinion. We conclude, however, that the judgment should have been reversed.
As a general rule, a municipality may not be held liable for injuries resulting from a simple failure to provide police protection (see, e.g., Weiner v Metropolitan Transp. Auth.,
There exists, however, a narrow class of cases in which we have recognizеd an exception to this general rule and have upheld tort claims based upon a "special relationship” between the municipality and the claimant (De Long v County of Erie,
Another element of the "special duty” exception is the requirement that there be "some direct contact between the agents of the municipality and the injured party” (Sorichetti v City of New York, supra, p 469; see, Helman v County of Warren,
As a rule based partially on policy considerations, the direct contact requirement has not been applied in an overly rigid manner. Thus, in Sorichetti v City of New York (supra), a case involving a preexisting judicial order of protection, we allowed recovery for an infant’s injuries, although it was the infant’s distraught mother, and not the injured infant, who had the direct contact with the law enforcement officials. Our deviation from the "direct contact” requirement in that case, however, may be explained by the close relationship between the interests of the mother and those of the child, as well as by the fact that the mother’s contact with the police had been initiated solely for the purpose of obtaining protection for the
In this case, the requirement that there be some direct contact with an agent of the municipality is fatal to the cause оf action asserted by plaintiff Ralston Cuffy, the older son who was not a member of Joseph and Eleanor Cuffy’s household and did not himself have any direct contact with the police. The absence of direct contact is dispositive of Ralston’s claim for two reasons. First, unlike in Sorichetti, none of the factors militating in favor of relaxing the "direct contact” requirement are present in his case. Since Ralston did not live in the Cuffy’s home, his interests were not tied to those of the rest of his family, and it cannot be said that the assurances of protection his father had received directly from Lieutеnant Moretti were obtained on his behalf. Accordingly, Ralston’s connection to the official promises that form the basis of this action is simply too remote to support recovery.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, there was no indication that Ralston even knew of the promise of protection that his father had received. His presence at the house on the day of the incident was thus merely an unfortunate coincidence and, in any event, was certainly not the result of his own reliance on any promise of protection that the police might have made (see, Helman v County of Warren, supra; Yearwood v Town of Brighton, supra). In the absence of such reliance, his claim is insufficient as a matter of law.
The claims asserted against the City by Eleanor and Cyril Cuffy present a more complex problem. Although neither of those pаrties had "direct contact” with the public servant Who had promised to provide the family with protection, the "special duty” undertaken by the City through its agent must be deemed to have run to them. It was their safety that prompted Joseph Cuffy to solicit the aid of the police, and it was their safety thаt all concerned had in mind when Lieutenant Moretti promised police assistance. It would thus be wholly unrealistic to suggest that Eleanor and Cyril Cuffy were in no different position from any other citizen or that the
Nonetheless, Eleanor and Cyril Cuffy’s recovery is precluded for the entirely separate reason that, as a matter of law, their injuries cannot be deemed to have been the result of their justifiable reliance on the assurancеs of police protection that Joseph Cuffy had received. It is true that the evidence supported an inference that both of these plaintiffs remained in the house during the night of July 27, 1981 and throughout the following morning primarily because of their reliance on Lieutenant Moretti’s promise tо Joseph that Joel Aitkins would be arrested or something else would be done "first thing in the morning.” However, Ms. Cuffy also testified that she had periodically looked out her front window throughout the day of the incident and had not seen any police cars pull up in front of her house and that she continued to bе nervous about the situation. Thus, plaintiffs’ own evidence established that by midday on July 28th Ms. Cuffy was aware that the police had not arrested or otherwise restrained Mr. Aitkins as had been promised.
This evidence was sufficient, as a matter of law to defeat any colorable claim that Eleanor and Cyril Cuffy’s injuries were the result of any justifiable reliance on the lieutenant’s assurances. Although both of them knew or should have known by midday that the promised police action would not be forthcoming, they remained in the house hours after any further reliance on those assurances could reasоnably be deemed justified. It was this continued presence in the house and the consequent continued exposure to danger that ultimately led to their participation in the melee, which was prompted, in the immediate sense, by Ralston’s arrival and his unfortunate confrontation with Aitkins.
In this regard, it is notеworthy that, according to the uncontradicted evidence, Ms. Cuffy had entertained relatives that day, her husband had been in and out of the house twice that very evening and the couple had plans to go out to dinner later that night. Thus, it certainly cannot be said that, having remained in the house overnight in reliance on the officer’s promise, the family was thereafter trapped and unable to take steps to protect itself when its members knew or should have known that police assistance would not be forthcoming.
For all of the foregoing reasons, the order of the Appellate Division should be reversed, with costs, and the complaint dismissed.
Chief Judge Wachtler and Judges Simons, Kaye, Alexander, Hancock, Jr., and Bellacosa concur.
Order reversed, etc.
Notes
Lieutenant Moretti had died before the trial of this action and was therefore unavailable to confirm Cuffy’s version of the conversation. However, Officer Pennington, who had returned from the field, was present at the precinct that night and was able to confirm that Cuffy had spoken to Moretti, although he never got close enough to overhear what was said.