§ 1411.Damages recoverable when contributory negligence or assumption of risk is established.

Before 1975, a plaintiff whose own carelessness played any part in an accident could be barred from recovering anything at all. CPLR 1411 replaced that all-or-nothing rule with comparative negligence. Under subsection (a), a claimant's own culpable conduct -- whether it's called contributory negligence or assumption of risk -- no longer bars a personal injury, property damage, or wrongful death claim. Instead, the damages otherwise recoverable get reduced in proportion to the claimant's share of the fault that caused the harm. A claimant found 30 percent at fault still recovers 70 percent of the damages.

Subsection (b) carves out an exception for cases governed by Article 51 of the Insurance Law -- New York's no-fault motor vehicle insurance scheme, which lets injured people sue for pain and suffering only once they clear a serious-injury threshold. In those cases, a claimant whose own fault exceeds the fault of the defendant, or the combined fault of multiple defendants, is barred from recovering anything. That reintroduces something closer to the old contributory-negligence bar, but only within the no-fault motor vehicle context, and only once the claimant's fault outweighs the defendant's.

Pure comparative negligence under subsection (a) is the general New York rule for personal injury and property claims outside that no-fault carve-out, and it's a meaningful departure from many other states, which cut off recovery once a plaintiff's fault reaches 50 percent. New York doesn't impose that ceiling for ordinary tort claims.