Perez v Andrews Plaza Hous. Assoc., L.P.
2009 NY Slip Op 09160 [68 AD3d 512]
December 10, 2009
Appellate Division, First Department
As corrected through Wednesday, February 10, 2010


Gladys Perez, Appellant,
v
Andrews Plaza HousingAssociates, L.P., et al., Respondents.

[*1]Law Offices of Samuel J. Lurie, New York (Dennis A. Breen of counsel), for appellant.

Curan, Ahlers, Fiden & Norris, LLP, New York (Joan L. Fiden of counsel), forrespondents.

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Alan J. Saks, J.), entered September 4, 2008,upon a jury verdict in favor of defendants, dismissing the complaint, unanimously affirmed,without costs.

The jury's verdict was supported by valid lines of reasoning and permissible inferences fromthe evidence at trial (see Cohen v Hallmark Cards, 45 NY2d 493, 499 [1978]), and wasnot against the weight of the evidence. Notwithstanding that defendants presented no directevidence to contradict it, the jury was free to disbelieve plaintiff's testimony that she gavedefendants notice of the defective door saddle that caused her to slip and fall (see PJI1:37; Matter of Nowakowski, 2 NY2d 618, 622 [1957]). The jury could rationally havefound plaintiff's testimony unbelievable in light of her admission that she never went todefendants' management office to complain in person during the three months in which sheclaimed her telephoned complaints were being ignored and defendants' evidence that they hadresponded to other, unrelated, complaints that plaintiff made in the same time period.Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Andrias, Saxe, Catterson and Acosta, JJ.


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