Summary
In Gainey v. City of New York, 278 AD2d 102 (1st Dept.2000), the First Department upheld an award for $300,000 for past pain and suffering and $300,000 for future pain and suffering for an injury resulting in a ruptured muscle and a ruptured quadriceps tendon requiring eight days of hospitalization, lengthy recovery, many months in a cast, and a lot of pain leaving plaintiff in a progressive and debilitated condition.
Summary of this case from Fisk v. City of New YorkOpinion
December 14, 2000.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Kenneth Thompson, Jr., J.), entered October 7, 1999, which, upon a jury verdict, awarded plaintiff,inter alia, $300,000 for past pain and suffering and $300,000 for future pain and suffering structured pursuant to CPLR article 50-B, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
Arnold E. DiJoseph III, for plaintiff-respondent.
Jane S. Earle, for defendant-appellant.
Before: Rosenberger, J.P., Williams, Tom, Ellerin, Wallach, JJ.
Although defendant City contends that plaintiff failed to make out a prima facie case that it caused and/or created the defect that allegedly resulted in plaintiff's trip and fall, the testimony of plaintiff's expert, viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff (see, McCummings v. New York City Tr. Auth., 81 N.Y.2d 923, 926, cert denied 510 U.S. 991;see also, Van Diepen v. Kidder, Peabody Co., 244 A.D.2d 151, 152, lv denied 91 N.Y.2d 813), furnished an adequate basis for the jury's conclusion that defendant did in fact cause and/or create the alleged hazard. The jury was not required to accept the City's unsupported conjecture that the steep slope in the path to which plaintiff's accident and injury were attributed had been caused by some natural mechanism.
There is no merit to defendant's claim that the damages awarded plaintiff for his past and future pain and suffering are excessive and deviate materially from what is reasonable compensation. As a consequence of the subject accident, plaintiff sustained a ruptured muscle and quadriceps tendon, significant injuries that necessitated eight days of hospitalization, surgical repair followed by many months in a cast and a brace, and that have caused plaintiff substantial pain and left him in a permanently and progressively debilitating physical condition.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.