Opinion
March 7, 1994
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Monteleone, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is reversed, on the law, with costs, and the action is dismissed.
The plaintiff, a police officer at the time of the accident, was injured when the patrol car in which he was a passenger crashed while responding to an emergency call. The Supreme Court, after a nonjury trial, awarded the plaintiff damages on the basis of two theories: common law negligence and General Municipal Law § 205-e. We now reverse.
It is well settled that, generally, a police officer may not recover damages in negligence for injuries arising in the very situations that create the occasion for his or her special services (see, Cooper v. City of New York, 81 N.Y.2d 584; Santangelo v. State of New York, 71 N.Y.2d 393; O'Sullivan v Fischo Entertainment Corp., 173 A.D.2d 804; Magness v. Glandorf, 171 A.D.2d 652). Here, the injuries complained of fall squarely within this general rule (see, Cooper v. City of New York, 81 N.Y.2d 584). Thus, the plaintiff's cause of action sounding in common law negligence is foreclosed.
Moreover, although recent developments concerning General Municipal Law § 205-e might render it applicable to the injuries at bar (see, e.g., Malsky v. Towner, 196 A.D.2d 532; Costantini v Benedetto, 190 A.D.2d 888; O'Sullivan v. Fischo Entertainment Corp., 173 A.D.2d 804, supra; Campbell v. Lorenzo's Pizza Parlor, 172 A.D.2d 478), this theory was not pleaded nor was any proof offered at the trial with respect thereto.
In view of the foregoing, the issue of whether the defendant City of New York is vicariously liable for the fault of the police officer who was driving the patrol car when it crashed is academic.
This resolution of the issues renders the parties' remaining arguments academic. Mangano, P.J., Pizzuto, Altman and Krausman, JJ., concur.