Summary
concluding that "undocumented, conclusory" claims of potential earnings were too speculative to support an award for lost earnings
Summary of this case from Carroll v. U.S.Opinion
December 5, 1994
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Queens County (Durante, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is reversed insofar as appealed from, on the law, with costs, the award of $154,000 representing past and future lost earnings is deleted, and the matter is remitted to the Supreme Court, Queens County, for the entry of an amended judgment in the principal sum of $80,000 for the remaining items of damages.
We agree with the defendants that the evidence adduced at the trial concerning the plaintiff's past and future lost earnings was unsubstantiated and conclusory. We have held that claims for such losses "must be ascertainable with a reasonable degree of certainty and may not be based on conjecture" (Long Is. Airports Limousine Serv. Corp. v Northwest Airlines, 124 A.D.2d 711, 713).
Here, the plaintiff's proof consisted of undocumented, conclusory statements with respect to his alleged earnings as a self-employed plumber. The plaintiff's speculative contentions failed to establish damages with the requisite degree of certainty necessary to support an award for lost earnings (see, Brown v Samalin Bock, 168 A.D.2d 531). Mangano, P.J., Thompson, O'Brien and Ritter, JJ., concur.