Brown v. State

Appeal from a judgment of the Court of Claims (Blinder, J.), entered June 6,1977, which dismissed the claim. Lillian Brown, the claimant, has been a patient at Pilgrim State Hospital continuously since 1965. During this period, several of her treating physicians diagnosed her a suicidal. She was accordingly confined to a closed ward, which was devised to prevent a patient’s unattended exit and was equipped with window guards and locks to ensure the patient’s safety. Keys to the doors and window guards were solely in the possession of the hospital’s employees. On March 2,1975, claimant, then…