Opinion
13243 Index No. 155252/14 158126/14 Case No. 2020-04440
03-02-2021
Tameka MCCANTS, Plaintiff–Respondent, v. Joseph FRANCHI Jr., etc., et al., Defendants–Appellants. [And Another Action]
Cozen O'Connor, New York (Eric J. Berger of counsel), for appellants. Greenberg Law P.C., New York (Joseph P. DePaola of counsel), for respondent.
Cozen O'Connor, New York (Eric J. Berger of counsel), for appellants.
Greenberg Law P.C., New York (Joseph P. DePaola of counsel), for respondent.
Gische, J.P., Mazzarelli, Gonza´lez, Mendez, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Lisa A. Sokoloff, J.), entered on or about April 24, 2020, which, to the extent appealed from as limited by the briefs, granted plaintiff's motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability against defendants Joseph Franchi Jr. and Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
Plaintiff made a prima facie showing that defendants were negligent as a matter of law, by demonstrating that defendants' bus proceeded into the intersection after stopping at a stop sign, but without yielding the right-of-way to plaintiff's bus, in violation of Vehicle and Traffic Law §§ 1142(a) and 1172(a) (see Pace v. Robinson, 88 A.D.3d 530, 531, 930 N.Y.S.2d 581 [1st Dept. 2011] ; Williams v. Hayes, 103 A.D.3d 713, 713–714, 959 N.Y.S.2d 713 [2d Dept. 2013] ). Defendant Franchi testified that the accident happened after he turned his bus right to proceed southbound on Main Street and partially entered the northbound lane to complete the turn, while he was looking to the left, which was not the direction he was turning his bus, and did not see that plaintiff's bus was in the northbound lane until after the two buses had collided (see Salamone v. Barenbaum, 281 A.D.2d 199, 721 N.Y.S.2d 649 [1st Dept. 2001] ). Plaintiff, as the driver with the right-of-way, was entitled to anticipate that Franchi would obey traffic laws that required him to yield, and the question as to whether she was comparatively negligent by driving too fast or not sounding her horn before the impact does not preclude partial summary judgment in her favor on the issue of liability (see Ayala v. Pascarelli, 168 A.D.3d 613, 614, 90 N.Y.S.3d 893 [1st Dept. 2019] ).