| Zhagui v Gilbo |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 05117 [63 AD3d 919] |
| June 16, 2009 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
| Jose Osvaldo Zhagui, Respondent, v Frederick H. Gilbo etal., Appellants. |
—[*1] Paul H. Maloney, P.C., New York, N.Y. (Paul H. Maloney IV of counsel), forrespondent.
In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the defendants appeal from an order ofthe Supreme Court, Kings County (Dabiri, J.), dated February 19, 2008, which granted theplaintiff's motion pursuant to CPLR 4404 (a) to set aside a jury verdict in their favor on the issueof liability, and for a new trial.
Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, with costs, and the plaintiff's motion pursuantto CPLR 4404 (a) to set aside the jury verdict in favor of the defendants and against the plaintiffon the issue of liability and for a new trial is denied.
A jury verdict should not be set aside as against the weight of the evidence unless the jurycould not have reached the verdict by any fair interpretation of the evidence (see Lolik v BigV Supermarkets, 86 NY2d 744 [1995]; Nicastro v Park, 113 AD2d 129 [1985]). Ajury finding that a party was negligent but that the negligence was not a proximate cause of theaccident is inconsistent and against the weight of the evidence only when the issues are "soinextricably interwoven as to make it logically impossible to find negligence without alsofinding proximate cause" (Rubin v Pecoraro, 141 AD2d 525, 527 [1988]; see Jaffierv Wilson, 54 AD3d 725 [2008]). "Where the verdict can be reconciled with a reasonableview of the evidence, the successful party is entitled to the presumption that the jury adopted thatview" (Koopersmith v General Motors Corp., 63 AD2d 1013, 1014 [1978]; seeRubin v Pecoraro, 141 AD2d at 526). Under the circumstances, the issues of negligence andproximate cause were not inextricably interwoven, and the jury determination that the defendantdriver's negligence was not a proximate cause of the accident was not against the weight of theevidence (see Rubin v Pecoraro, 141 AD2d 525 [1988]). Mastro, J.P., Florio, Eng andLeventhal, JJ., concur.