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Santos-Lopez v. Metropolitan Tr. Auth

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department
Jun 14, 2011
85 A.D.3d 512 (N.Y. App. Div. 2011)

Opinion

No. 5323.

June 14, 2011.

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Stanley B. Green, J.), entered on or about May 10, 2010, upon a jury verdict finding defendants 100% liable for the infant plaintiffs injuries, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Gruvman Giordano Glaws, LLP, New York (Paul S. Gruvman of counsel), for appellants.

Pollack, Pollack, Isaac DeCicco, New York (Brian J. Isaac of counsel), for respondent.

Before: Concur — Saxe, J.P., Acosta, DeGrasse, Abdus-Salaam and Manzanet-Daniels, JJ.


The jury's finding that defendants were 100% responsible for the accident was not against the weight of the evidence ( see Gilliam v Vasilis, 225 AD2d 509). Although the bus driver's testimony that he had a green light was supported by his contemporaneous accident reports and the police officer's testimony that the infant plaintiff said he jumped in front of the bus, thinking it would stop, the jury was free to reject the driver's testimony, in part or in whole ( see McDermott v Coffee Beanery, Ltd., 9 AD3d 195, 210 [2004, Saxe, J., concurring]; PJI 1:37). Both the infant plaintiff and a nonparty witness, another pedestrian in the same crosswalk, testified that the infant plaintiff had the right of way.

The trial court properly refused to charge the emergency doctrine since a pedestrian's appearance in a crosswalk is a situation that a driver should anticipate and be prepared to deal with ( Hart v Town of N. Castle, 305 AD2d 543).


Summaries of

Santos-Lopez v. Metropolitan Tr. Auth

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department
Jun 14, 2011
85 A.D.3d 512 (N.Y. App. Div. 2011)
Case details for

Santos-Lopez v. Metropolitan Tr. Auth

Case Details

Full title:CARMEN SANTOS-LOPEZ, Respondent, v. METROPOLITAN TRANSIT AUTHORITY et al.…

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department

Date published: Jun 14, 2011

Citations

85 A.D.3d 512 (N.Y. App. Div. 2011)
2011 N.Y. Slip Op. 5127
925 N.Y.S.2d 57

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