Opinion
September 28, 1995
Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County (Salvador Collazo, J.).
The IAS Court properly exercised its discretion in denying consolidation of three actions seeking to recover for personal injuries arising out of three separate and distinct incidents. As the IAS Court aptly stated after correctly noting that the only factor of any significance common to the actions is the plaintiff's identity, a single trial involving 15 defendants implicated for varying, unrelated reasons would complicate the issues. It would lead to jury confusion, and, in the present circumstances, would also prejudice the prosecution of the action that is at an advanced stage of readiness ( see, Shackleford v Mills, 110 A.D.2d 630; Hutton Co. v Tretiak, 140 A.D.2d 294; Nicolla v Nicolla, 128 A.D.2d 998).
Concur — Rosenberger, J.P., Asch, Williams and Mazzarelli, JJ.