Negligent hand shaking is not actionable

Gladstone v Fallon, 2016 NY Slip Op 03642 (4th Dept. 2016)

Plaintiffs appeal from an order granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, which seeks to recover damages for personal injuries allegedly sustained by Diane M. Gladstone (plaintiff) as a result of defendant’s allegedly negligently shaking her hand.

It is [required only] that the care be commensurate with the risk and danger” (Nussbaum v Lacopo , 27 NY2d 311, 319). Here, “plaintiff failed to show that the act of this [defendant] as to [her] had possibilities of danger so many and apparent as to entitle [her] to be protected against the doing of it . . . Against this kind of unlikely misfortune, the law does not confer protection” (id. ). We thus conclude that defendant cannot be held liable for his alleged negligence in shakinghands with plaintiff (see generally Johnson v Vetter , 1991 WL 348415, *1-3 [Ct of common Pleas of Pa 1991)

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