Summary
In Nuzzo, after a trial held in 1993, the jury awarded $750,000 as a combined award, presumably for both past and future pain and suffering.
Summary of this case from Sokol v. LazarOpinion
September 18, 1995
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Queens County (Lane, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.
The plaintiff, who was 47 years old at the time of the surgeries, sought medical treatment from the defendant to correct a deformity of her right great toe and hammertoes on both her right and left feet. Because of the defendant's misdiagnosis and resultant inappropriate surgeries to both of the plaintiff's feet, there was an increase in deformity in the plaintiff's right and left great toes in addition to dislocation, subluxation, and narrowing of the metatarsal and phalangeal joints of the plaintiff's lesser right and left toes, which essentially rendered the forepart of the plaintiff's feet nonfunctional.
The plaintiff testified that she could not stand for long periods of time, could not walk long distances, could only walk by shuffling her feet, and could no longer perform simple tasks without experiencing excruciating pain.
The parties' respective medical experts disagreed as to whether further surgical procedures would restore her ability to use her feet in a more normal fashion. Therefore, there was ample evidence from which the jury could conclude that further surgery would be painful and fruitless. Therefore, its implicit finding that the plaintiff's condition could not be corrected was not against the weight of the evidence. Furthermore, under the circumstances, the verdict was not excessive (see, CPLR 5501 [c]; see also, Murphy v A. Louis Shure, P.C., 156 A.D.2d 85). Miller, J.P., O'Brien, Ritter and Goldstein, JJ., concur.