Opinion
June 22, 1990
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Erie County, Fudeman, J.
Present — Dillon, P.J., Boomer, Pine, Davis and Lowery, JJ.
Order and judgment unanimously affirmed without costs. Memorandum: On October 22, 1987, plaintiff sustained personal injuries while a passenger in a vehicle owned and operated by Thomas Edwards. Plaintiff alleges that Edwards' vehicle was forced off the road and into a bridge abutment by a vehicle owned and operated by Bradley Lunt, the 20-year-old son of defendant Thomas Lunt. The vehicle was registered in Bradley Lunt's name, he was the named insured under an automobile insurance policy, he held a valid New York State operator's license and only he possessed the keys to the vehicle. Plaintiff asserts a cause of action against Thomas Lunt for negligent entrustment of a dangerous instrument to his son (see, Nolechek v. Gesuale, 46 N.Y.2d 332, 336). Supreme Court granted Thomas Lunt's motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint and cross claims asserted against him. We affirm. Bradley Lunt, on the date of the accident, was no longer an infant; he had attained his majority (see, CPLR 105 [j]). Thomas Lunt cannot be liable to third parties under a theory of negligent entrustment of a dangerous instrumentality in the hands of his adult son (see, Nolechek v. Gesuale, supra, at 338). Moreover, the record establishes that Bradley Lunt's use of the vehicle was not subject to his parent's control (see, Camillone v. Popham, 157 A.D.2d 816; Borregine v. Klang, 144 A.D.2d 415; Larsen v Heitmann, 133 A.D.2d 533, lv denied 70 N.Y.2d 616).