Opinion
No. 4616.
March 24, 2011.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Karen S. Smith, J), entered April 22, 2009, upon a jury verdict, in an action for breach of contract, awarding plaintiff the total amount of $280,000.95 jointly and severally against defendants-appellants RJR Mechanical Inc. and Mid-State Surety Corporation, unanimously affirmed, with costs.
Loanzon Sheikh LLC, New York (Umar A. Sheikh of counsel), for appellants.
Sullivan Gardner, P.C., New York (Brian Gardner of counsel), for respondent.
Before: Gonzalez, P.J., Catterson, Richter, Abdus-Salaam and Román, JJ.
The jury's finding that plaintiff was owed sums on a contract was well supported by the evidence. Such evidence included, inter alia, plaintiffs former field supervisor's testimony, based upon personal knowledge, that the subject work had been completed and the engineer's finding that the project was "substantially complete."
Appellants failed to object to the court's curative instructions provided in response to the mention of settlement negotiations at trial. Thus, they are precluded from challenging the sufficiency of these instructions on appeal ( see Dennis v Capital Dist. Transp. Auth., 274 AD2d 802, 803). In any event, the court's prompt and explicit curative instructions sufficiently alleviated any prejudicial effect of the references to settlement discussions. Furthermore, the court's limited charge as to the permissible inference to be drawn based upon RJR Mechanical Inc.'s principal's invocation of his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination was appropriate ( see PJI 1:76).
We have considered appellants' remaining arguments and find them unavailing.