On July 3, 2012, a New Rochelle police officer drove his official vehicle into the rear of another vehicle. Edward Carter, a passenger in the other vehicle, sued both drivers for his personal injuries. A Westchester jury ruled that both drivers were at fault.
In a separate damages only trial, the jury determined that
In 2021 and twice this year, New York’s appellate courts issued a total of four decisions in shoulder injury cases that addressed the reasonableness of the damages awarded at the trial in each case.
Here are summaries of those cases (all of which are discussed in detail in articles we published here at New York
On November 13, 2010, Ralph Destino was involved in a motor vehicle crash in which his vehicle collided with a state trooper’s vehicle at a T intersection in Niagara County. Mr. Destino sustained shoulder injuries.
In the ensuing lawsuit, the Court of Claims judge determined that the trooper, who’d been on his way to
On July 24, 2013, Byung Choon Joe was in the course of his employment as an asbestos removal worker when he fell six feet from a scaffold at a state office building in Albany. Mr. Joe sued the State of New York claiming the scaffold was defective and that as a result of his fall
On June 10, 2005, Joseph Fratello was making a turn into a parking lot when a Suffolk County bus collided with his van on Montauk Avenue in Southampton .
Fratello, then 29 years old, sued the driver and the county claiming the bus driver’s negligence caused the accident and injuries to his hip and wris
On March 4, 2013, Jose Flores was riding his bicycle down Second Avenue just south of 76th Street in Manhattan when he was struck by a large city bus.
Mr. Flores, then 37 years old, fell to the ground and could
On March 12, 2013, Richard Gontarek tripped and fell between flights of the steps of the staircase at the 59th Street and Lexington Avenue subway station in Manhattan.
Mr. Gontarek, then 47 years old, sued the transit authority claiming he fell and sustained injuries because of cracked tiles on the staircase platform. A Manhattan jury
On July 27, 2013, Franklin Abreu-DePena, then 39 years old, was driving his taxi in the Bronx when he was involved in a crash with another vehicle.
Mr. Abreu-DePena claimed shoulder, neck and back injuries and in his ensuing lawsuit again the other driver, the jury (a) determined that the other driver was 60% at
On February 3, 2010, Emilio Carino was driving his van in the Bronx with two passengers. While stopped at a red light, the van was struck in the rear by another vehicle.
Carino and his passengers sued the other driver who conceded liability. A trial on damages ensued and the Bronx jury awarded pain and
On August 15, 2012, Elaine Steinbok was on her way home from work when the taxicab in which she was a rear seat passenger made a left turn and struck a New York City Parks & Recreation vehicle at the intersection of Riverside Drive and West 76th Street in Manhattan.
Ms. Steinbok, then 34 years