Williams v. State

Judgment of the Court of Claims of the State of New York (Alan C. Marin, J.), entered June 10, 2009, after a nonjury trial, *413dismissing the claim, reversed, on the law and the facts, without costs, the claim reinstated, liability on the part of the State is found, and the matter remanded for a trial on the issue of damages.

The issue in this case is proximate cause: Where defendant allows a voluntary mental patient to “elope” from its facility, can that defendant be liable for an assault that the patient perpetrates two years later? Given the extensive history of extreme and consistent violence…