47 A.D.2d 570 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1975
Appeal from a judgment of the Court of Claims, entered January 28, 1972, which dismissed, after trial, claims for the deaths of two college students. On May 6, 1966, the claimants’ decedents herein drowned in a fierce and unexpected storm on Lake George while participating in an overnight canoe outing sponsored by the Intercollegiate Outing Clubs of America (hereinafter IOCA). As the deeedants were students at the State University College at New Paltz (hereinafter University) at the time and were participating in the outing as part of the New Paltz Outing Club contingent, the administrators of their respective estates subsequently instituted these wrongful death actions, alleging that the deaths resulted from neglect of duty by the University in failing to properly supervise the outing, which it had encouraged, at least indirectly, as an extracurricular activity at the school. In dismissing both claims, the trial court ruled that to subject the State to liability in this instance would be to impose “an unfair burden inconsistent with