Northacker v. Cnty. of Ulster

212 A.D.3d 86

181 N.Y.S.3d 709

Joyce A. NORTHACKER, Respondent,

v.COUNTY OF ULSTER et al., Appellants.

(And Another Related Action.)

534474

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, New York.

Calendar Date: November 16, 2022

Decided and Entered: December 22, 2022

Cook, Netter, Cloonan, Kurtz & Murphy, PC, Kingston (Eric M. Kurtz of counsel), for County of Ulster, appellant.

Hancock Estabrook, LLP, Syracuse (Seth M. Weinberg of Mauro Lilling Naparty LLP, Woodbury, of counsel), for Jewish Family Services of Ulster County, Inc., appellant.

The Finkelstein Law Firm, LLC, Goshen (Steven A. Kimmel of Law Offices of Steven A. Kimmel, Washingtonville, of counsel), for respondent.

Before: Egan Jr., J.P., Lynch, Aarons, Reynolds Fitzgerald and McShan, JJ.

OPINION AND ORDER

Egan Jr., J.P. Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court (James P. Gilpatric, J.), entered November 4, 2021 in Ulster County, which, among other things, partially granted plaintiff's motion for summary judgment.

A fuller description of the underlying facts is provided in our decision in a related matter (see Bryant v. Gulnick, 212 A.D.3d 78, ––– N.Y.S.3d –––– [3d Dept. 2022] [decided herewith]). Briefly, defendant County of Ulster collaborated with defendant Jewish Family Services of Ulster County, Inc. (hereinafter JFS) to operate a Neighbor to Neighbor program in which volunteers were connected with senior citizens who needed transportation to and from medical appointments. Plaintiff requested that transportation and, on January 8, 2018, was being driven by Barbara Hyde. Hyde lost control of her vehicle in poor weather, and it slid into oncoming traffic, where it was struck by a public bus driven by defendant Carla F. Bryant in the course of her employment with the County. Hyde was fatally injured in the accident, while plaintiff and Bryant sustained injuries. Plaintiff commenced these actions to recover for her injuries. The first was commenced in February 2019 and, as amended, asserts claims against the County, JFS and Bryant. The second was commenced in April 2019 against defendant Burton Gulnick Jr., the administrator of Hyde's estate.

During the same period in 2019, Bryant sought leave to serve a late notice of claim against the County and its Office for the Aging (hereinafter OFA) to recover for the injuries she allegedly sustained in the accident. Supreme Court (Fisher, J.) issued an order that granted leave to do so, but also dismissed the claim because Bryant's exclusive remedy was workers’ compensation benefits in that she and Hyde were coemployees of the County acting within the scope of their employment at the time of the accident (hereinafter the 2019 order). Bryant further commenced a separate action against Gulnick and JFS that is the subject of the related appeal before us.¹

Defendants answered in these two actions, with the County asserting cross claims against JFS for contribution and/or indemnification and JFS asserting a cross claim against the County and Bryant (hereinafter the County defendants) for contribution and/or indemnification. Following joinder of issue and discovery, plaintiff moved for partial summary judgment against defendants on the issue of liability. The County defendants cross-moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint and cross claims against them. JFS, in turn, cross-moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint and the cross claims against it. Supreme Court (Gilpatric, J.) thereafter issued an order in which it determined that plaintiff was entitled to summary judgment on the issue of liability with regard to the County, JFS and Gulnick, but not Bryant. The court denied both cross motions in their entirety. The County defendants and JFS separately appeal, and this Court granted the motion of JFS for a stay pending appeal (2022 N.Y. Slip Op. 67633[U], 2022 WL 2187634 [3d Dept. 2022] ).²

Initially, because plaintiff was not employed by either the County or JFS and was simply a passenger in Hyde's vehicle, the workers’ compensation concerns present in Bryant v. Gulnick (supra ) pose no obstacle to her recovering against defendants. We therefore turn our attention to the arguments of the County defendants and JFS as to whether Supreme Court properly granted plaintiff's motion for summary judgment to the extent of deeming the County and JFS vicariously liable for Hyde's negligence.³ The question in that regard is whether Hyde could "be considered [the County's or JFS’] servant for purposes of respondeat superior liability" ( Robinson v. Downs, 39 A.D.3d 1250, 1252, 834 N.Y.S.2d 770 [4th Dept. 2007] ; see Paterno v. Strimling, 107 A.D.3d 1233, 1235, 968 N.Y.S.2d 643 [3d Dept. 2013] ; Restatement [Second] of Agency § 225 ); "[a] principal-agent relationship can include a volunteer when the requisite conditions, including control and acting on another's behalf, are shown" ( Paterno v. Strimling, 107 A.D.3d at 1235, 968 N.Y.S.2d 643 ; see Robinson v. Downs, 39 A.D.3d at 1252, 834 N.Y.S.2d 770 ; Maurillo v. Park Slope U–Haul, 194 A.D.2d 142, 146, 606 N.Y.S.2d 243 [2nd Dept. 1993] ). There is no doubt that Hyde was performing duties in the course of her volunteer work at the time of the accident, leaving the issue of whether she was undertaking those duties on behalf, and subject to the control, of the County or JFS. Notably, "the question of control is generally a question of fact," and summary judgment is appropriate only "where the evidence in the record is undisputed" ( Mason v. Spendiff, 238 A.D.2d 780, 781, 656 N.Y.S.2d 462 [3d Dept. 1997] ).

With regard to the County, Supreme Court determined that the County could not dispute that Hyde was its agent because the 2019 order had already determined that Hyde was its employee. Assuming, without deciding, that the County is correct in arguing that the 2019 order was not entitled to res judicata or collateral estoppel effect as against it, the equitable remedy of judicial estoppel "provides that where a party assumes a certain position in a legal proceeding, and succeeds in maintaining that position, it may not thereafter, simply because its interests have changed, assume a contrary position" ( Walker v. GlaxoSmithKline, LLC, 201 A.D.3d 1272, 1275, 163 N.Y.S.3d 260 [3d Dept. 2022] [internal quotation marks, brackets and citation omitted]; see Maas v. Cornell Univ., 253 A.D.2d 1, 5, 683 N.Y.S.2d 634 [3d Dept. 1999], affd 94 N.Y.2d 87, 699 N.Y.S.2d 716, 721 N.E.2d 966 [1999] ). Judicial estoppel applies here since, as we explained in Bryant v. Gulnick (supra ), the 2019 order dismissing Bryant's claim was premised upon the argument of the County and OFA that Bryant and Hyde were employees of the County and acting within the scope of their duties at the time of the accident. Having successfully taken that position, the County is barred from taking the opposite one in an effort to escape liability here, and Supreme Court properly rejected its efforts to do so (see Walker v. GlaxoSmithKline, LLC, 201 A.D.3d at 1275–1276, 163 N.Y.S.3d 260 ; Excelsior Ins. Co. v. Antretter Contr. Corp., 262 A.D.2d 124, 124, 128, 693 N.Y.S.2d 100 [1st Dept. 1999] ). Accordingly, Supreme Court properly granted plaintiff's motion insofar as it sought to hold the County vicariously liable for the negligence of Hyde.

As for Supreme Court's further determination that JFS was vicariously liable for Hyde's negligence, although the County had already been determined to be Hyde's employer, JFS could also be held liable for her conduct in that "[a] person may be deemed to have more than one employer" or to have acted on behalf of multiple principals ( Graziano v. 110 Sand Co., 50 A.D.3d 635, 636, 855 N.Y.S.2d 203 [2d Dept. 2008] ; see Restatement [Third] of Agency §§ 3.14, 3.16 ). The Neighbor to Neighbor program under which Hyde transported plaintiff was operated under the terms of a written agreement between OFA and JFS, and those terms provided that drivers would be volunteering for JFS and subject to significant supervision and control by it. JFS agreed, for example, to develop minimum qualifications for volunteers; verify that each volunteer had a valid driver's license and a clean driving record; ensure that volunteers maintained insurance coverage; provide all necessary training and counseling for volunteers; and both track the performance of volunteers and address complaints about that performance.

Other evidence cast doubt on whether JFS exercised that agreed-upon supervision and control, as the executive director of JFS essentially testified that OFA ran the Neighbor to Neighbor program despite the terms of the agreement and that JFS's role was limited to administrative tasks such as billing, carrying liability insurance and cutting reimbursement checks to volunteers. That said, the OFA employee who administered the agency's senior volunteer programs gave deposition testimony indicating that JFS was responsible for operating the program and overseeing volunteers, with OFA providing assistance to JFS in performing those duties. The record, in other words, is simply unclear as to how much control JFS had or exercised over volunteers. Accordingly, as "questions of fact exist as to whether [Hyde] was acting as [JFS’] agent when the accident occurred," no party was entitled to summary judgment on the issue of JFS’ liability for Hyde's conduct ( Fils–Aime v. Ryder TRS, Inc., 40 A.D.3d 917, 917–918, 837 N.Y.S.2d 199 [2d Dept. 2007] ; see Paterno v. Strimling, 107 A.D.3d at 1235, 968 N.Y.S.2d 643 ; Robinson v. Downs, 39 A.D.3d at 1251–1252, 834 N.Y.S.2d 770 ). It follows that Supreme Court properly denied the cross motion of JFS insofar as it sought summary judgment dismissing the complaint, but should have also denied that part of plaintiff's motion seeking summary judgment against JFS on the issue of liability.

Next, we agree with the County defendants that Supreme Court should have granted their cross motion to the extent that it sought summary judgment dismissing plaintiff...