92 A.D.2d 884 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1983
— In a negligence action to recover damages for personal injuries, defendant appeals from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Putnam County (Hickman, J.), dated December 21, 1981, which awarded plaintiff the principal sum of $300,000, upon a jury verdict (following an apportionment of a $400,000 verdict as to damages at 25% against plaintiff and 75% against defendant). Judgment reversed, on the facts, without costs or disbursements, and a new trial granted with respect to the issue of damages only, unless, within 20 days after service upon plaintiff of a copy of the order to be made hereon, with notice of entry, he shall serve and file in the office of the clerk of the Supreme Court a written stipulation consenting to decrease the verdict as to damages to $100,000 and to the entry of an amended judgment in favor of plaintiff in the principal sum of $75,000 (following apportionment). In the event plaintiff so stipulates, then the judgment, as so amended and decreased, is affirmed, without costs or disbursements. We find that the $400,000 verdict arrived at by the jury is excessive and contrary to the weight of the evidence (see Senko v Fonda, 53 AD2d 638). As the result of a fall on an icy surface outside of a supermarket in Mahopac, New York, owned by defendant, plaintiff sustained injuries which were diagnosed to include an acute strain of his lower back and a herniated disc in the lumbar portion of his spinal column. Although plaintiff was bedridden and in a great deal of pain for approximately two months following the accident, his medical special damages were modest and he required no hospitalization or surgery. A neurologist