Opinion
September 20, 1976
In a negligence action to recover damages for personal injuries, defendants appeal from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Rockland County, dated November 3, 1975, as granted plaintiff's motion to set aside the jury verdict of $5,000 as inadequate, and directed a new trial unless defendants stipulated to the entry of judgment against them in the amount of $17,500. Order affirmed, with $50 costs and disbursements. Plaintiff, who was 23 years old at the time of the automobile accident, sustained a permanent facial disfigurement, consisting of a bulge in the center of a six-inch scar on the forehead. His special damages were approximately $2,800. In our view the jury verdict of $5,000 was so grossly inadequate as to enable the Trial Judge, who viewed and evaluated the afore-mentioned scar, to conclude that such verdict shocked the conscience of the court. Gulotta, P.J., Hopkins, Latham, Cohalan and Hawkins, JJ., concur.