Luke v. State

Appeal by the defendant, The State of New York, from a judgment of the Court of Claims awarding damages to the claimant in the sum of $6,000. The person in whose interest the claim is presented was a patient in the St. Lawrence State Hospital at Ogdensburg, N. Y., who was permanently insane. She was confined in a ward with sixty-two other patients with only two attendants present. This patient and some other patients were known to be assaultive patients. While in the day ward, where practically aE the patients were, one of the assaultive patients rushed over and shoved the claimant so that…