Case Results

L.S.B. a front-seat passenger in a livery car (taxi). Livery car collided with mini-bus in intersection of 5th Street and 8th Avenue, in Brooklyn. Each driver claimed to have a green light. Livery driver waved away mini-bus driver so that mini-bus was gone from scene by the time police arrived.

Our client was parking a customer’s car at the car dealership where he worked when the car he was driving was rear-ended by a different customer’s vehicle. The client required back surgery and was and is totally disabled.

Fire in one-family house in Woodside, Queens. Client P.O'S. asleep on ground floor. Three other clients asleep upstairs. The fire started on the ground floor, for reasons unknown. Front door of building kept locked. P. O'S. was burned, and ran upstairs. All clients jumped out of second-story windows.

THEORY OF CASE: The N.Y.C. Fire Marshal could not determine the cause of the fire. The landlord was not sued for causing the fire but, rather, for running an illegal boarding house with several non-related people living there, in violation of N.Y.C. Building Code. Missing were sprinklers, fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, etc. Our clients called as an expert trial witness a retired N.Y.C. Fire Chief

F.D. was on a ladder painting a wall in the BQE Racquetball Club when the ladder slipped, causing him to fall approximately twelve feet and hit the ground face first.

INJURIES: Multiple fractures to face and nose with scarring; right shoulder injury with partial rotator cuff tear; assorted minor neck, back and knee injuries.

While working as a security guard in a condominium building on Long Island, A.D. was on his way to have lunch when he walked across a freshly painted basement floor, which had no warning signs. He slipped and fell and landed on his back and buttocks.

INJURIES: L5-S1 herniated disc with L5 radiculopathy. Compression of lumbar nerve.

Our client's vehicle was rear-ended by a truck on Rockaway Blvd., near Baisley Blvd., in Queens County. The truck driver reported that his foot slipped off the brake.

INJURIES: Soft-tissue neck and back injuries - radiculopathy, myofascitis; herniated discs at C4-C5, C5-C6 and L5-S1 (confirmed by MRI).

Client seen in Emergency Room on day of accident. She commenced physical therapy.

Our client was working in the back of his landscaping trailer when the rear door of the trailer dropped to the ground to form a ramp. We immediately assembled a team of experts, including a licensed private investigator, a video enhancement specialist, and an accident reconstruction expert to handle this case.

J.R. driving; R.R. in front passenger seat. Defendant/driver made an unsafe left turn in front of our clients' vehicle. There was a severe impact to the driver's- side front bumper and fender area, severely deforming the car.

 As a result of the accident, R.R. was confined to North Shore University Hospital from September 11, 1995 to September 13, 1995 and was treated in the Emergency Room of St. Joseph's Hospital on October 16, 1995.

On November 8, 1995 J.R. underwent neurosurgery -- right-sided burr hole evacuation of a subdural hematoma.

RESULT: Settlement for $455,000 (March, 1999).

Our client, M.M., was walking with her child, crossing 69th Avenue, at its intersection with 60th Lane, in Ridgewood, Queens. An S.U.V. ran a stop sign and knocked her to the ground, causing loss of consciousness.

INJURIES: Fracture of left shoulder, with deformity; fracture of pubic ramos (pelvis).

Our client, M.L., was riding his motorcycle eastbound on 68th Drive, heading towards 140th Street, in Queens County, New York when he was struck by a bus. The bus had been stopped facing westbound on 68th Drive and made a sudden, un-signaled left turn onto 140th Street. The driver’s-side front bumper of the bus struck the left side of my motorcycle, behind the front tire, throwing our client off the motorcycle.

INJURIES: Right shoulder impingement and post-traumatic stress. Plaintiff’s orthopedist found a 25% permanent loss of use of his right shoulder.

Our client, A.S., was a passenger in a car stopped at a red light. The car was rear-ended by a van, whose driver claimed his brakes failed.

INJURIES: Herniated disc C 5 -C 6 , herniated disc L 3 -L 4 , posterior disc bulge L 4 -L 5 , disc herniation L 5 -S 1 causing thecal sac impingement, cervical and lumbar radiculo­pathy; left shoulder: hypertrophic acromio­clavicular joint with spur formation causing impinge­ment; TMJ (temporomandibular joint syndrome): jaw “click” and jaw pain.

While descending, P.A. slipped down the bottom portion of a flight of steps in the house where she rented an upstairs room. She landed on her back.

INJURIES: L 4 -L 5 herniated disc with forward slipping of L 4 vertebrae over L 5 vertebrae. Compression of lumbar nerve.

Our client, A.Y., was riding his motor­cycle north on Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, when a southbound car made a left turn in front of him. A.Y. broadsided the car and flew off his motorcycle.

INJURIES: Fractured left wrist – both bones, the radius and ulna; full thickness degloving (skin peeled off) injury to the back of the right hand and right wrist.

Our client, D.G., was walking east across Franklin Avenue in Hempstead, Nassau County. As D.G. neared the center line of the roadway, he was struck on his left leg by a car traveling north on Franklin. The car fled.

INJURIES: Fracture of tibia, left leg.

Our client was driving her vehicle when another car made a left turn in front of her. She fractured her wrist, which healed without surgery. The client and her family members did an equal three-way split of Allstate’s $50,000 insurance coverage, giving the client a total settlement of $66,000, without even filing a lawsuit.

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the defendants appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Polizzi, J.), entered November 20, 1996, which, upon a jury verdict, is in favor of the plaintiff and against them in the principal sum of $50,000.

The jury found that the plaintiff sustained a serious injury as defined by Insurance Law § 5102 (d). Its verdict may be set aside as against the weight of the evidence only if it could not have been reached on any fair interpretation of the evidence (see, Moskowitz v Israel, 209 AD2d 676; Dunleavy v Samuel, 177 AD2d 540; Nicastro v Park, 113 AD2d 129).

The plaintiff, Mickele Castelli, a/k/a Michael Castelli, was injured when he fell from a ladder that swayed and rocked and lacked safety feet or any type of anchor.

The Supreme Court properly granted the plaintiff summary judgment on his Labor Law § 240 (1) cause of action. The plaintiff established that the work that he was performing at the time of his accident constituted an alteration to a structure within the purview of the statute (see, Walsh v Applied Digital Data Sys., 190 AD2d 731; Atwell v Mountain, Ltd., 184 AD2d 1065; Tate v Clancy-Cullen Stor. Co., 171 AD2d 292), that he was not provided with appropriate safety devices, and that this violation was a proximate cause of his injuries (see, Bland v Manocherian, 66 NY2d 452; Sprague v Peckham Materials Corp., 240 AD2d 392).