Summary Judgment Granted by New York Court on Issue of Comparative Negligence

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the plaintiff appealed from an order of the Supreme Court, Nassau County, granting the motion of the defendants, Paul Edward Destocki and PNH Intercontinental Corp., for summary judgment, dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against them. 

The plaintiff commenced this action against the owner and the driver of a taxicab, Centro America Corp. and Reginald Scott, respectively (the taxicab defendants), and the owner and the driver of a van, PNH Intercontinental Corp. and Paul Edward Destocki, respectively (the van defendants), to recover damages for personal injuries the plaintiff allegedly sustained when the taxicab, in which he was a passenger, collided with the van. The van defendants moved for summary judgment on the grounds that the evidence did not establish their negligence. 

The court opined a defendant moving for summary judgment in a negligence action has the burden of establishing, prima facie, that he or she was not at fault in the happening of the subject accident. Here, the van defendants submitted transcripts of the deposition testimony of the plaintiff and of Reginald Scott, which established that Scott, the taxicab driver, failed to yield the right of way by driving through a red light immediately before the accident occurred. 

The Appeals Court found that the Supreme Court properly granted the van defendants’ motion, opining the contentions that the van driver could have avoided the accident or that he was otherwise negligent were speculative and unsupported by the record. 

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