Reyes v Esquilin

2008 NY Slip Op 07030 [54 AD3d 615]

September 23, 2008

Appellate Division, First Department

As corrected through Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Felix Reyes, Appellant, v Jose M. Esquilin, Respondent, etal., Defendants.

—[*1]The Law Offices of Alvin M. Bernstone, LLP, New York (Matthew Albert Schroeder ofcounsel), for appellant.

Litchfield Cavo LLP, New York (Sean Hyun-Baek Chung of counsel), forrespondent.

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Dianne T. Renwick, J.), entered July 5, 2007, whichgranted defendants' motions for summary judgment dismissing the complaint for lack of a seriousinjury as required by Insurance Law § 5102 (d), unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff failed to present objective medical evidence responsive to defendants' showing thatthe MRIs of plaintiff taken shortly after the accident revealed only age-related degenerativechanges, not any sudden trauma that can be causally related to the accident (see Pommells v Perez, 4 NY3d566, 579 [2005]; Ronda v FriendlyBaptist Church, 52 AD3d 440 [2008]; Becerril v Sol Cab Corp., 50 AD3d 261 [2008]). Absent suchevidence, it does not avail plaintiff's 90/180-day claim that defendants' experts did not addresshis condition during the relevant period of time (see Blackwell v Fraser, 13 AD3d 157, 157 [2004]; cf. Webb v Johnson, 13 AD3d 54, 55[2004]). Concur—Lippman, P.J., Tom, Williams, McGuire and Freedman, JJ.