R.B. v. County of Orange

—In three related actions to recover damages for personal injuries based on negligence, the respective plaintiffs appeal from three judgments of the Supreme Court, Orange County (Miller, J.), all dated December 23, 1993, which, upon a jury verdict in favor of the defendant County of Orange, dismissed the complaints insofar as they are asserted against it.

Ordered that the judgments are reversed, on the law, and a new trial is granted, with costs to abide the event.

The trial court erred, both procedurally and substantively, when it instructed the jury that if it determined that the plaintiffs’…