Telsaint v. City of New YorkTelsaint v. City of New York
In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the plaintiff appeals, as limited by her brief, from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Sweeney, J.), dated January 14, 2013, as granted that branch of the defendant’s motion which was pursuant to
Ordered that the order is reversed insofar as appealed from, on the law, without costs or disbursements, that branch of the defendant’s motion which was pursuant to
The plaintiff slipped and fell on ice on a sidewalk abutting the defendant’s property, and was injured. Snow had fallen five days before the accident, and the snow had been shoveled into piles on either side of the sidewalk, with a path cleared in the middle for pedestrians. The temperatures had fluctuated in the days leading up to the accident, causing the piles of snow to melt and then freeze into the ice on which the plaintiff slipped. The plaintiff commenced this action against the defendant. A jury found the defendant liable, and awarded the plaintiff the sums of $750,000 for past pain and suffering and $1,500,000 for future pain and suffering. The Supreme Court granted that branch of the defendant’s motion which was pursuant to
For a court to conclude that a jury verdict is not supported by legally sufficient evidence, there must be no valid line of reasoning and permissible inferences which could possibly lead rational persons to the conclusions reached by the jury on the basis of the evidence presented at trial (see Cohen v Hallmark Cards, 45 NY2d 493, 499 [1978]; Anthony v New York City Tr. Auth., 38 AD3d 484, 485-486 [2007]; Nicastro v Park, 113 AD2d 129, 132 [1985]).
Under the circumstances presented here, the jury rationally could have concluded that the defendant had constructive notice of the icy condition that caused the plaintiff to slip and fall
Since the Supreme Court granted that branch of the defendant’s motion which was to set aside the jury verdict and for judgment as a matter of law, it denied, as academic, the alternative branches of the defendant’s motion which were to set aside the jury verdict as contrary to the weight of the evidence and for a new trial or to set aside, as excessive, the jury verdict on the issue of damages for past and future pain and suffering. Under the circumstances of this case, in which the complete record of the trial is before us, and in the interest of judicial economy, we address the merits of these alternative branches of the defendant’s motion (see Cusumano v City of New York, 104 AD3d 639, 641 [2013]).
A jury verdict should not be set aside as contrary to the weight of the evidence unless the jury could not have reached the verdict by any fair interpretation of the evidence (see Lolik v Big v Supermarkets, 86 NY2d 744, 745-746 [1995]; Nicastro v Park, 113 AD2d 129, 130 [1985]). Here, the jury’s findings on the issue of liability were based on a fair interpretation of the evidence and, thus, were not contrary to the weight of the evidence.
However, the damages awarded to the plaintiff for past and future pain and suffering deviated materially from what would be reasonable compensation to the extent indicated herein (see