LEVINE v. CHEMICAL BANK

In an action for wrongful death and pain and suffering, the decedent, an off-duty police officer, was shot and killed when he tried to apprehend one of the perpetrators of an assault on a customer at an ATM machine. Insofar as the action against defendant bank is based on common-law negligence for failure to provide adequate security, it was properly dismissed on the ground that recovery is precluded by the so-called "fireman's rule" as applied to police officers ( Santangelo v City of New York, 71 N.Y.2d 393; Cooper v City of New York, 81 N.Y.2d 584), and more specifically to off-duty police officers attempting to apprehend a suspect ( Campbell v Lorenzo's Pizza Parlor, 172 A.D.2d 478, lv denied 78 N.Y.2d 863). Nor can there be recovery under General Municipal Law § 205-e because any violation by the bank of the statutes relied upon would not have increased the risk faced by the decedent in his pursuit of phe perpetrators ( St. Jacques v City of New York, 215 A.D.2d 75). Further, any such violation could not have been the proximate cause of the decedent's death ( Dyer v Norstar Bank, 186 A.D.2d 1083, lv denied 81 N.Y.2d 703).

Concur — Rosenberger, J.P., Wallach, Rubin and Williams, JJ.