Opinion
2002-08892
Argued June 12, 2003.
July 28, 2003.
In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for medical malpractice, the defendant Safwat Youssef appeals, as limited by his brief, from so much of an amended judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Patterson, J.), entered August 7, 2002, as, upon a jury verdict, is in favor of the plaintiffs and against him in the principal sum of $128,000.
Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman Dicker, LLP, New York, N.Y. (Richard E. Lerner of counsel), for appellant.
Kahn Gordon Timko Rodriques, P.C., New York, N.Y. (Thomas B. Grunfeld of counsel), for respondents.
Moore Associates, New York, N.Y. (Jeffrey M. Coyne of counsel), for defendant Afolabi Emmanuel.
Before: SANDRA J. FEUERSTEIN, J.P., GABRIEL M. KRAUSMAN, GLORIA GOLDSTEIN, REINALDO E. RIVERA, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the amended judgment is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with one bill of costs to the respondents.
Because the jury's answers to interrogatories posed in the verdict sheet were inconsistent with each other, the Supreme Court properly directed the jury to reconsider them ( see CPLR 346 4111[c]; Marine Midland Bank v. Russo Produce Co., 50 N.Y.2d 31, 40; Bowes v. Noone, 298 A.D.2d 859, 860; Ryan v. Orange County Fair Speedway, 227 A.D.2d 609, 611). "On reconsideration, the jury was free to substantively `alter its original statement so as to conform to its real intention', and was not bound by the terms of its original verdict" ( Ryan v. Orange County Fair Speedway, supra, quoting Bernard v. Seyopp Corp., 11 A.D.2d 140, 141; see Bowes v. Noone, supra).
FEUERSTEIN, J.P., KRAUSMAN, GOLDSTEIN and RIVERA, JJ., concur.