WADLER v. CITY OF NEW YORK (2008)

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Eileen A. Rakower, J.), entered March 3, 2008, which denied plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability and granted defendants' cross motion to dismiss the complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs. Appeal from order, same court and Justice, entered June 5, 2008, which denied plaintiff's motion for reargument, unanimously dismissed, without costs, as taken from a nonappealable paper.

Plaintiff, a police officer, was injured while driving his assigned police car across a security barrier at the entrance to the parking garage at One Police Plaza.   The four-foot-high barrier had been lowered to permit plaintiff to pass but was raised again before his car cleared it, and the front end of the car was jerked into the air.   Plaintiff is barred by the firefighter's rule from recovering on his common-law negligence claims because “the acts undertaken in the performance of police duties placed him [ ] at increased risk for that accident to happen” (Zanghi v. Niagara Frontier Transp. Commn., 85 N.Y.2d 423, 440, 626 N.Y.S.2d 23, 649 N.E.2d 1167 [1995];  Melendez v. City of New York, 271 A.D.2d 416, 417, 706 N.Y.S.2d 132 [2000];  Simons v. City of New York, 252 A.D.2d 451, 675 N.Y.S.2d 597 [1998];  see also Grogan v. City of New York, 259 A.D.2d 240, 699 N.Y.S.2d 12 [1999] ).

We have considered plaintiff's other arguments and find them unavailing.