65 A.D.2d 923 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1978
—Order unanimously affirmed, without costs. Memorandum: Plaintiff appeals from an order setting aside a verdict for her in the sum of $30,000 in a wrongful death action and granting a new trial on the issue of damages only. Defendants cross-appeal for failure of the court either to dismiss the complaint or grant a new trial on all issues. The court did not set aside the verdict on the ground of excessiveness, but only because it determined that it committed reversible error bearing on the question of damages in permitting plaintiff, mother of her 12-year-old deceased daughter, over objection, to introduce evidence that the child’s father died two and one-half years after the death of the child and, more particularly, that had the child survived the father she would have received monthly Social Security benefits by reason of the father’s death in the sum of $309.53 until the child reached 18 years of age and, additionally, that if she had lived and continued on to college after her 18th birthday, she would have received $309.53 per month for four more years to assist in her college