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Montas v. Abouel-Ela

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
Oct 24, 2017
2017 N.Y. Slip Op. 7413 (N.Y. App. Div. 2017)

Opinion

4793 305620/10

10-24-2017

Lazaro Joel Montas, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Sally H. Abouel-Ela, Defendant-Respondent.

Ogen & Sedaghati, P.C., New York (Eitan A. Ogen of counsel), for appellant. Picciano & Scahill, P.C., Bethpage (Andrea E. Ferrucci of counsel), for respondent.


Ogen & Sedaghati, P.C., New York (Eitan A. Ogen of counsel), for appellant.

Picciano & Scahill, P.C., Bethpage (Andrea E. Ferrucci of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Howard H. Sherman, J.), entered April 26, 2016, upon a jury verdict in favor of defendant, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff has not demonstrated conduct by defendant's counsel that would warrant reversal. Defendant's counsel was properly permitted to cross-examine plaintiff's expert rebuttal witness about the circumstances surrounding his suspension from chiropractic school for falsely reporting that he had seen patients, a matter relevant to his credibility (see generally Badr v Hogan, 75 NY2d 629, 634 [1990]; Spanier v New York City Tr. Auth., 222 AD2d 219, 220 [1st Dept 1995]). Although the conduct was 30 years ago, the witness opened the door to its relevancy by claiming that his expert knowledge of biomechanics came, in part, from his training as a chiropractor. Counsel's comments about the plaintiff's expert in summations were within the broad bounds of rhetorical comment (see Selzer v New York City Tr. Auth., 100 AD3d 157, 163 [1st Dept 2012]).

In any event, the purportedly offensive comments did not "create a climate of hostility that so obscured the issues as to have made the trial unfair" (Wilson v City of New York, 65 AD3d 906, 908 [1st Dept 2009]; cf. O'Neil v Klass, 36 AD3d 677 [2d Dept 2007]).

We have considered plaintiff's remaining arguments and find them unavailing.

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.

ENTERED: OCTOBER 24, 2017

CLERK


Summaries of

Montas v. Abouel-Ela

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
Oct 24, 2017
2017 N.Y. Slip Op. 7413 (N.Y. App. Div. 2017)
Case details for

Montas v. Abouel-Ela

Case Details

Full title:Lazaro Joel Montas, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Sally H. Abouel-Ela…

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York

Date published: Oct 24, 2017

Citations

2017 N.Y. Slip Op. 7413 (N.Y. App. Div. 2017)