Preston v. State

OPINION OF THE COURT

Memorandum.

The order of the Appellate Division should be reversed, without costs, and the interlocutory judgment of the Court of Claims reinstated.

Having waived its sovereign immunity, the State is subject to the same rules of liability as apply to private citizens (Court of Claims Act, § 8). As a landowner, the State “ ‘must act as a reasonable man in maintaining his property in a reasonably safe condition in view of all the circumstances, including the likelihood of injury to others, the seriousness of the injury, and the burden of avoiding the risk’ ” (Basso v Miller,…