Luckey v Bauch
2005 NYSlipOp 02805
April 11, 2005
Appellate Division, Second Department
As corrected through Wednesday, June 22, 2005


Vernell Luckey, Appellant,
v
Jonathan Bauch et al., Respondents.

[*1]

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the plaintiff appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Hurkin-Torres, J.), dated February 27, 2004, which granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint on the ground that she did not sustain a serious injury within the meaning of Insurance Law § 5102 (d).

Ordered that the order is affirmed, with costs.

In support of their motion for summary judgment, the defendants submitted a transcript of the plaintiff's deposition testimony and copies of her medical records (see Hodges v Jones, 238 AD2d 962 [1997]). When considered with the affirmed medical reports of their examining orthopedist and neurologist, the defendants' evidence was sufficient to make a prima facie showing that the plaintiff did not sustain a serious injury within the meaning of Insurance Law § 5102 (d) (see Toure v Avis Rent A Car Sys., 98 NY2d 345 [2002]; Gaddy v Eyler, 79 NY2d 955 [1992]).

The burden therefore shifted to the plaintiff to come forward with "competent admissible medical evidence," based on objective findings, sufficient to raise a triable issue of fact that she sustained a serious injury (McLoyrd v Pennypacker, 178 AD2d 227, 228 [1991]). The plaintiff failed to meet her burden. The plaintiff submitted numerous inadmissible, unsworn medical reports (see Pagano v Kingsbury, 182 AD2d 268 [1992]; Grasso v Angerami, 79 NY2d 813, 814 [1991]), which her expert improperly relied upon in making his diagnosis (see Friedman v U-Haul Truck Rental, 216 AD2d 266, 267 [1995]). Moreover, the affirmed medical report of her expert failed to adequately account for the injuries to the plaintiff's neck and back as a result of two other motor vehicle accidents, one which occurred before the subject accident, and one which occurred subsequent to the subject accident (see Rogers v Chiarelli, 10 AD3d 355 [2004]; McNeil v Dixon, 9 AD3d 481, 482-483 [2004]; Omar v Goodman, 295 AD2d 413, 414-415 [2002]).

Accordingly, the Supreme Court properly granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint. Florio, J.P., Krausman, Crane, Rivera and Fisher, JJ., concur.


NYPTI Decisions © 2026 is a project of New York Prosecutors Training Institute (NYPTI) made possible by leveraging the work we've done providing online research and tools to prosecutors.

NYPTI would like to thank New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, New York State Senate's Open Legislation Project, New York State Unified Court System, New York State Law Reporting Bureau and Free Law Project for their invaluable assistance making this project possible.

Install the free RECAP extensions to help contribute to this archive. See https://free.law/recap/ for more information.