Bednarz v Inn On Bridges St., Inc.

2009 NY Slip Op 09353 [68 AD3d 1411]

December 17, 2009

Appellate Division, Third Department

As corrected through Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Eric J. Bednarz, Respondent, v Inn On Bridges Street, Inc., DoingBusiness as Narrowsburg Inn, et al., Appellants.

—[*1]Michael Frey, Barryville, for appellants.

Michael D. Altman, South Fallsburg, for respondent.

Kane, J. Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court (Meddaugh, J.), entered December 24,2008 in Sullivan County, which denied defendants' motion to set aside a verdict in favor ofplaintiff.

Plaintiff was injured when he slipped and fell on property owned and operated bydefendants. At a trial addressing damages, his medical expert testified that plaintiff suffered froma separated coccyx and complex regional pain syndrome. After the jury awarded damages forpast pain and suffering, defendants moved to set aside the verdict, arguing that the expert'sopinion should have been excluded. Supreme Court denied the motion, prompting defendants'appeal.

Supreme Court did not err in permitting plaintiff's medical expert to testify. "To be properlyadmitted, expert opinion evidence must generally be based upon facts either found in the record,personally known to the witness, derived from a 'professionally reliable' source or from a witnesssubject to cross-examination" (Brown v County of Albany, 271 AD2d 819, 820 [2000],lv denied 95 NY2d 767 [2000]; see Hambsch v New York City Tr. Auth., 63NY2d 723, 725-726 [1984]). The expert's testimony diagnosing the coccyx injury was basedupon his reading of X rays taken shortly after the accident, which X rays were admitted intoevidence. This objective evidence, coupled with information garnered from his years of treatingplaintiff, [*2]sufficiently supported the expert's opinion oncausation (see O'Brien v Mbugua, 49 AD3d 937, 939 [2008]; Brown v County ofAlbany, 271 AD2d at 820-821). As the expert's opinion was admissible, the court properlydenied defendants' motion to set aside the verdict.

Peters, J.P., Rose, Kavanagh and McCarthy, JJ., concur. Ordered that the order is affirmed,with costs.