Opinion
April 26, 1971
In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, plaintiffs appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Orange County, dated October 8, 1969, upon a jury verdict in favor of defendants. Judgment reversed on the law and in the interests of justice, and new trial ordered, with costs to abide the event. One of the issues in this closely-contested negligence case was whether the defendant Robert Schade's conviction of the charge of reckless driving in the Justice Court of the Town of Cornwall was the result of a plea of guilty or of a finding of guilt after trial, the jury having been instructed that they were to disregard the conviction if it was based on a finding of guilt after trial, but that they could consider it as an admission if based upon a plea (cf. Montalvo v. Morales, 18 A.D.2d 20). Under these circumstances, plaintiff was severely prejudiced by the admission of the hearsay statement of Town Justice THOMSON to the effect that the court clerk had told him that she had altered the court records to reflect defendant's conviction on a guilty plea after discussion with the attorney "on the civil end of the Schade case." In our opinion, the trial court's failure to comply with plaintiffs' properly-worded request for a definition of reckless driving was also reversible error. Although the jury was instructed that it could consider a plea to the reckless driving charge as an admission, it was not informed of the nature or meaning of that admission. Munder, Acting P.J., Martuscello, Shapiro, Gulotta and Benjamin, JJ., concur.