Motor Vehicle Accidents

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

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Practice Specialties » Motor Vehicle Accidents

NT Woman Wins $1.5 Million Verdict; May Set Precedent for Providing Alcohol to Minors

North Tonawanda Woman Wins $1.5 Million Motor Vechicle Suit

The Case May Set Precedent On Providing Alcohol To Underage Minors



            In a potentially precedent-setting case, a passenger hurt in a one-car crash has won a $1.5 million civil lawsuit against the driver and the person who purchased beer consumed by the driver before the accident. The verdict was rendered Thursday evening in State Supreme Court in Niagara Falls. A six member jury deliberated for three hours after hearing testimony for two weeks. The judgment was reduced from $2 million, because the 16 year old victim was was not wearing a seatbelt.

            Her attorneys, J. Michael Hayes of Buffalo, said the case is one of the first involving a new statute that extends the Dram Shop laws (GOL 11-101)governing liability in alcohol-related accidents to social hosts pursuant to General Obligations Law 11-100. This is potentially a very important case. The usual situation is that there is a social host, parents for example, letting kids have beer at a party.   In this case, it wasn't the parents but the kids themselves supplying other kids with alcohol.

            The purchaser was 17 at the time. He purchased two 15-packs of beer from the Food Mart on Payne Avenue for a group of North Tonawanda teenagers, including the driver who drank the beer before the accident. The car hit a utility pole on River Road in Wheatfield. The only passenger and victim, was left partially paralyzed on her right side.

             The driver was not charged in the accident by Niagara County sheriff’s deputies who also did not administer a blood alcohol test, Hayes said. However, the jury concluded that he was either intoxicated or impared due to his consumption of the alcohol. The jury heard testimony from the other teenagers who witnesses the driver drinking a number of beers, a nurse who smelled alcohol on his breath five hours later and a toxicologist who said he would have been intoxicated as a result of drinking the amount of beer specified by the other teens.

Woman Hurt in Crash Awarded $1.1 Million

Woman Hurt in Automobile Crash in Buffalo Awarded $1.1 Million

A 56 year old woman and her husband were awarded $1.1 million by a State Supreme Court jury for injuries she suffered after her vehicle was rear-ended. A jury ordered GEICO Insurance to pay the Town of Tonawanda woman. The victim was about to turn onto Woodward Street from Elmwood Avenue in Kenmore when she was rear-ended by a car traveling at a high rate of speed at about 4:30 p.m. causing severe neck injuries, according to her attorney, J. Michael Hayes. The crash was witnessed by an off duty police officer who happended to be standing across the street.

The injury was a "non-surgical" herniated disc in her neck. The victim actually continued to work at her job for the next 4½ years even thought she was in constant pain, on medication and getting regular medical treatment. Eventually, the chronic pain forced her to retire early. Her husband was awarded $300,000 for his "loss of services" which included that he had to significantly help his wife with her daily tasks of living.

Negligence Cases Against the Sheriff in Erie County

Cases against a Sheriff in Erie County

The Sheriff is a distinct entity, neither a municipality nor a public authority. There is no specific Notice of Claim requirement as to the sheriff himself. However , there may be implicit demands as to his deputies. Some counties have passed local laws accepting responsibility for negligent acts of the Sheriff in Erie County or his deputies. (See: New York Constitution, Article XIII § 13(a); Barr v. County of Albany 50 NY2d 247, 428 NYS2d 655 (1980). Since it is difficult to quickly assess which county has accepted such responsibilities, the prudent course for the injured victim's lawyer is to serve a Notice of Claim pursuant to 50-e of the General Municipal Law on both the County and the Sheriff. See: Marachian v. County of Oneida, 214 AD2d 1034, 626 NYS2d 646 (Fourth Department, 1995). Also, the statute of limitations is one year (CPLR 215 (1). If it an be proven that the Sheriff or his deputies were negligent and were not acting in the scope or course of their profession at the time of the accident, then they might be subject to a three year statute of limitations.

The prudent course for the accident lawyer is to file the Notice of Claim against the County of Erie and file the Summons and Complaint within the year time limit. That way you and your case are protected.

$500,000 Verdict in Buffalo Crash Including $175,000 Husband's Loss of Services

500,000 Award Made in Crash for Hip Replacement Including $175,000 for the Husband's Loss of Services.

A State Supreme Court jury Tuesday ordered NYCM, the insurance carrier for an Amherst woman, to pay an Orchard Park woman $500,000 for injuries suffered in a two-car crash in the parking lot of the Eastern Hills Mall in Clarence. The 81 year old woman driver was blamed for the crash failed to stop or look while crossing a roadway in the mall parking lot, ramming into the passenger side of the car.

The result was that the 79 woman passenger sustained a broken right arm and was required to get a hip replacement two months later, according to her attorney, J. Michael Hayes. The crash, aggravated a severely arthritic hip thereby bringing about the surgery.

The victim's husband was awarded $175,000 for loss of his wife's services and for the assistance he was expected to provide in the future. The case was not appealed.

SERIOUS INJURY THRESHOLD

SERIOUS INJURY THRESHOLD

The “serious injury threshold” in Buffalo has been a major issue for injury lawyers in automobile cases since the institution of the no fault law in 1976. The definition has been modified and has evolved since then. Obvious qualifying catagories include a fracture, loss of a limb, death, significant disfigurement (scarring).

The Court of Appeals recently spoke to the issue of soft tissue injuries including what makes herniated discs in Buffalo a qualifying injury. The Court spoke in Toure v. Avis Rent A Car Systems, 98 NY2d 345, 746 NYS2d 865 (2002).

There specific requirements of proof for lawyers were set forth and defined as necessary companions of a herniated disc so as to constitute meeting the threshold. As a simplistic example, a herniated disc that causes and has caused no symptoms, restrictions, limitations and for which there has been no objective symptomology will not qualify. However, a herniated disc together with objective and “measurable” restrictions observed by a physician or chriopractor as well as significant limitations of use by the victim may constitute a qualifying injury. All three components must be proven for this injury to qualify.

Town Woman Gets $695,000 Lawsuit Award

Batavia Woman Awarded $695,000 From the Court of Claims

A Town of Batavia woman injured in a car crash was been awarded $695,000 as a result of a lawsuit filed against New York state. State Court of Claims Judge Philip J. Patti also awarded $175,000 to the woman’s husband in a decision filed May 1.

The woman suffered broken ribs, facial injuries and tarsal tunnel syndrome as a result of an automobile crash on West Main Street in the City of Batavia. Tarsal tunnel syndrome affects the tibial nerve along the back of the leg to the feet. The injured woman was in the passing lane going east on Main Street when a official New York State on duty operator and vehicle failed to see a car stopped in front of him. He suddenly and unexpected went into the east lane to avoid the other car and hits the victim's van head-on.”

The case against the State of New York State was heard in Court of Claims in Rochester. The vicitm was awarded $135,000 for past pain and suffering and $560,000 for future pain and suffering. Her husband was awarded $175,000 for loss of wife’s services.

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