56 A.D.2d 814 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1977
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County, entered February 4, 1976, after a trial and a jury verdict, unanimously affirmed. Plaintiffs-respondents shall recover of defendants-appellants $60 costs and disbursements of this appeal. This action is a consolidation of several suits arising from a six-car chain automobile accident on the Long Island Expressway. Plaintiffs are the driver and occupants of the fourth car, a 1969 Ford Falcon, driven by John J. Calamari, Jr., which, when struck in the rear, caught fire. All three of its occupants sustained serious burns, but no other significant injuries, and John C. Calamari, father of the driver, died of his injuries. After trial, the jury returned a verdict against: Ford Motor Company; Manuel Ponte, the driver of the lead car, who came to a dead stop in the center lane after noticing his front tire was flat; Frances Gill, the driver of an Alexander’s Rent-A-Car, who came to an abrupt stop behind the Ponte car; Robert Steinert, the driver of the third car, who struck the Gill car; and Theodore Bohlman, the driver of the fifth car, who struck the Calamari car. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant Cornelius O’Connor, who struck the Bohlman car and found further that John J. Calamari, Jr., the driver of the Ford, was not negligent. The apportionment of the damages was: Ford, 82%; Ponte, 2%; Gill (and Alexander’s), 2%; Steinert, 2%; and Bohlman, 12%. Drivers are under a