VAUGHN v. CITY OF NEW YORK NYPD (2020)

Order (Denise M. Dominguez, J.), entered July 2, 2019, insofar as appealed from, reversed, without costs, motion granted and the complaint dismissed.

Plaintiff alleges that he suffered personal injuries when he was struck in the back by a pumpkin, and “lunged at” and spit upon by unknown assailants in two separate incidents at the subway station at Broadway and 86th Street. The complaint alleges that defendants negligently failed to provide adequate police protection at the subway station.

Even accepting plaintiff's allegations as true, and according them the benefit of every favorable inference, as we must in the context of a motion to dismiss on the pleadings (see Leon v. Martinez, 84 NY2d 83, 87-88 [1994]), defendants' CPLR 3211(a)(7) cross motion to dismiss the complaint should have been granted. Although defendants owe a general duty to the public at large to furnish police protection, plaintiff may not recover in negligence because he failed to plead sufficiently that defendants owed him a special duty of care (see Valdez v. City of New York, 18 NY3d 69, 75 [2011]; Rivas v. City of New York, 180 AD3d 592 [2020]; Moore v. City of New York, 132 AD3d 644, 645 [2015], lv dismissed 27 NY3d 1146 [2016). Nor has plaintiff stated a claim that the defendants assumed a particular duty to provide police protection to a special class of persons of which he is a member (see Renwick v. Hogerheide, 218 AD2d 645 [1995], lv denied 87 NY2d 803 [1995]). Additionally, plaintiff's allegations established conclusively that defendants are insulated from liability under the governmental immunity doctrine (see Matter of World Trade Ctr. Bombing Litig., 17 NY3d 428, 452-455 [2011]).

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.

Per Curiam.

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