## Facts

- Armed robbers committed a street robbery near 26th Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan, and the victim pursued them while yelling “stop thief.”
- One robber, armed with a pistol, entered a taxicab owned by Peerless Transportation Co. and ordered the driver to leave immediately, threatening to kill him if he did not comply.
- As the cab moved a short distance, the driver heard the victim and saw a pursuing crowd approaching.
- In fear for his life, the driver threw the cab out of gear, applied the emergency and brakes, opened the door, and jumped out while believing the motor was still running.
- The now-driverless cab continued forward, mounted the sidewalk, and struck Mrs. Cordas and her two children, causing relatively minor injuries.
- Mrs. Cordas sued the cab owner/employer, alleging the driver was negligent in abandoning a moving vehicle.

## Issues

1. Whether a taxi driver acted negligently by abandoning a moving cab when confronted with an immediate, life-threatening command from an armed robber.
2. Whether the cab owner could be held vicariously liable absent negligence by the driver.

## Decision

- The court granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss after the evidence was presented.
- The court held the driver was not negligent because he acted under a sudden emergency created by a third party’s criminal conduct.
- Because the driver was not negligent, the employer was not liable for the plaintiffs’ injuries.

## Legal Principles

- Negligence is measured by the conduct of a reasonable person under the same conditions, including the presence of sudden, unexpected danger.
- Under the sudden emergency doctrine, a person confronted with an imminent peril not of the person’s own making is not held to the same level of judgment as one acting with time for deliberation.
- Conduct that would be unreasonable in ordinary circumstances may be reasonable when it is an instinctive response to an immediate threat to life or safety.
- Where the employee’s conduct is not negligent, vicarious liability against the employer fails on the same record.

## Conclusion

The court dismissed the complaint, ruling that the driver’s decision to abandon the cab while threatened at gunpoint was a reasonable response to a sudden emergency not created by the driver, defeating negligence and derivative employer liability.


Cordas v. Peerless Transp. Co., 27 N.Y.S.2d 198 (N.Y. City Ct. 1941)