In Williams v. New York City Tr. Auth. (decided 10/8/14), the Appellate Division, Second Department affirmed a judgement entered on a jury award of $480,000 (reached by applying the jury’s determination that defendant was 80% at fault in the happening of the accident to its assessment of $600,000 in damages sustained by plaintiff).
Here are the facts of this personal injury trip-and-fall case:
On June 1, 2002, the plaintiff was injured when she tripped and fell while walking down a staircase leading to an underpass in a subway station. After the accident, the plaintiff commenced this negligence action against the New York City Transit Authority. At trial, the plaintiff testified that she tripped at the top of the staircase where a floor tile was missing, and then fell forward and landed on the fourth step down, at which point she heard her ankle snap.
Here’s the law:
A jury verdict should not be set aside as against the weight of the evidence unless the jury could not have reached the verdict by any fair interpretation of the evidence. Whether a jury verdict should be set aside as contrary to the weight of the evidence does not involve a question of law, but rather requires a discretionary balancing of many factors. It is for the jury to make determinations as to the credibility of the witnesses, and great deference in this regard is accorded to the jury, which had the opportunity to see and hear the witnesses.
The court held that “it cannot be said that the evidence so preponderated in the defendant’s favor that the verdict could not have been reached on any fair interpretation of the evidence.”