Cosgrove v. State

When the State undertakes to act as a landlord it drops in that relationship its immunities and privileges, and conducts its real property operation with the usual risks. All this, of coursé, is with its sovereign consent.

The State managed and controlled the Floyd Bennett Field Emergency Housing Project in Brooklyn, containing a number of apartments. In one of the apartments the plumbing froze and burst in very cold weather in December, 1948, and the claimants, who were the occupants of the apartment below, sustained water damage to their property for which they have had judgment for $2,400…