Plaintiff was a passenger who had just entered a double-parked Access-a-Ride van which then was struck in the rear by another vehicle whose driver admits he feel asleep at the wheel. Defendant-van driver testified at deposition that he double parked in front of plaintiff's building to wait for her because there were no available spots at the curb and he did not see the entrance to the building's parking lot. He said he waited five minutes with his hazard lights on before plaintiff arrived, although plaintiff testified that she was standing at the building door waiting for the van when he pulled up, and got in immediately. In either event, after plaintiff got in, but before she was able to put on her seat belt,the accident occurred.

Following discovery, defendants-van driver and owner moved for summary judgment, arguing that since their van was struck in the rear while stopped, the accident was proximately caused solely by the negligence of the other driver, and that their van's presence in the traveling lane merely furnished the condition or occasion for the accident.

The First Department rejected that argument and denied the motion, in White v. Diaz, which was decided on January 24, 2008. The court concluded that a reasonable jury could find that a rear-end collision is a reasonably foreseeable consequence of double-parking for five minutes on a busy Manhattan street. Noting that the precise manner of the accident need not be foreseeable, the court said it was not necessary to find it foreseeable that a driver asleep at the wheel would hit the van; it is enough that it is foreseeable that, with the flow of traffic disrupted by the double-parked van, an inattentive, careless or distracted driver might not stop in time to avoid the van. Therefore, there is a triable issue of fact as to whether defendant-van driver's double-parking proximately caused the accident.

The court also said that summary judgement would be inapprpriate because of the dispute as to whether plaintiff was unable to put on her seat belt because it was stuck, as she claimed, or because the accident occurred too quickly to allow defendant-van driver time to help plaintiff with her seat belt.