Maldonado v. Hunts Point Cooperative Market, Inc., et al., Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department, March 10, 2011

In an appeal of an Order granting Summary Judgment to Abrams Gorelick clients, the Appellate Division, First Department, unanimously affirmed the lower court’s decision, previously reported here on June 29, 2010 (see “Employer not liable to girlfriend of shooter/employee where there was no showing of duty, proximate cause”, below).

The five-judge panel agreed that plaintiff failed to raise a triable issue of fact as to whether the defendants had negligently entrusted the weapon to the deceased assailant. Going further, the Court also agreed that, even if the defendants had owed the duty of care claimed by plaintiff, the breach of that duty was not the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries. “Independent intervening acts” arising out of the personal relationship between the plaintiff and her assailant “severed any nexus between the defendants’ alleged negligence and her injuries.”