Wilson v. South Buffalo Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
—Order unanimously reversed on the law without costs, motion granted and complaint against defendant South Buffalo Railway Company dismissed. Memorandum: Supreme Court erred in denying the motion of defendant South Buffalo Railway Company (South Buffalo) to dismiss the complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (7). The complaint alleges that plaintiff was assaulted and negligently struck while on property owned by South Buffalo, and that South Buffalo permitted plaintiff and others to "party” on its right-of-way. In opposition to South Buffalo’s motion, plaintiff’s attorney asserted that the right-of-way was "well known for a period of 10 or 20 years to be a premises where teenagers frequented to consume alcohol” and that it was foreseeable that an assault could occur at such a party. Construing the complaint liberally in the light most favorable to plaintiff and accepting all factual allegations as true (see, e.g., Morone v Morone, 50 NY2d 481, 484; Guggenheimer v Ginzburg, 43 NY2d 268, 275), we conclude that the complaint fails to state a cause of action against South Buffalo because it owed no duty to plaintiff under the circumstances of this case (see, O’Britis v Peninsula Golf Course, 143 AD2d 123).
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.