Opinion
February 9, 1998
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (Underwood, J.).
Ordered that the order and judgment is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.
The infant plaintiff was a passenger in an automobile driven by the defendant Paul A. Strohrmann, which collided with an automobile driven by the defendant Paul Oliva at the intersection of Strong and Catskill Avenues in Suffolk County. The jury returned a verdict finding Strohrmann 100% at fault for the happening of the accident, and the court dismissed the complaint against Oliva.
Contrary to the plaintiffs' contention, the jury verdict finding Oliva free from negligence was not against the weight of the evidence. It is well settled that "a jury verdict in favor of a defendant should not be set aside unless `the jury could not have reached the verdict on any fair interpretation of the evidence'" ( Nicastro v. Park, 113 A.D.2d 129, 134, quoting Delgado v. Board of Educ., 65 A.D.2d 547, affd 48 N.Y.2d 643). Here, the jury could have reasonably found from the evidence, which included the testimony of a neutral nonparty witness, that Oliva lawfully proceeded into the intersection while it was still clear, and had begun to turn south when he was struck by Strohrmann's vehicle, which was traveling north at a very fast speed in excess of the posted limit. Under these circumstances, we cannot say that the jury's verdict was against the weight of the evidence ( cf., Bolta v. Lohan, 242 A.D.2d 356; Nunziata v. Birchell, 238 A.D.2d 555; Dellavecchia v. Zorros, 231 A.D.2d 549; Mohamed v. Frische, 223 A.D.2d 628).
The plaintiffs' remaining contentions are either unpreserved for appellate review or without merit.
Joy, J.P., Krausman, Goldstein and Luciano, JJ., concur.