Opinion
November 24, 1997
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Yoswein, J.).
Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, with costs, the defendant's application is granted, and the complaint is dismissed.
The Supreme Court erred when it denied the defendant's posttrial application, inter alia, for judgment as a matter of law. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff ( see, Mirand v. City of New York, 84 N.Y.2d 44, 50; Alexander v. Eldred, 63 N.Y.2d 460, 464), "there is simply no valid line of reasoning and permissible inferences which could possibly lead rational [people] to the conclusion" ( Cohen v Hallmark Cards, 45 N.Y.2d 493, 499) that the defendant's conduct was the proximate cause of the happening of the accident.
Copertino, J. P., Sullivan, Pizzuto and Lerner, JJ., concur.