In Bentick v. Gatchalian, 2017 NY Slip Op 01172 (App. Div. 2d Dept. Feb. 15, 2017), an automobile accident case, the court affirmed the lower court’s decision granting plaintiff summary judgment on the issue of liability.
Plaintiff and defendant collided “while the plaintiff was in the process of making a left turn from westbound Hillside Avenue onto southbound Francis Lewis Boulevard in Queens, and the defendant was traveling eastbound on Hillside Avenue.”
In reaching its conclusion, the court explained:
To prevail on a motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability, a plaintiff must establish, prima facie, not only that the opposing party was negligent, but also that the plaintiff was free from comparative fault[]. Here, the plaintiff established her prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law on the issue of liability. The evidence submitted by the plaintiff, which consisted mainly of her own affidavit, demonstrated that the defendant’s vehicle struck her vehicle after she had already entered the intersection with the green light in her favor, and after checking the intersection for oncoming traffic going eastbound on Hillside Avenue, and northbound and southbound on Francis Lewis Boulevard. According to the plaintiff, after she had already entered the intersection and was in the process of making a left turn, the defendant’s vehicle went through the red light at the intersection, heading eastbound on Hillside Avenue, and directly into her vehicle. She further averred in her affidavit that the defendant’s vehicle was traveling at such a rate of speed that she was unable to avoid the accident. Her affidavit demonstrated, prima facie, that she was not at fault in the happening of the accident, and that the sole proximate cause of the accident was the defendant’s conduct in entering the intersection without stopping at the red traffic signal, in violation of Vehicle and Traffic Law §§ 1110(a) and 1111(d)(1). (Emphasis added.)
In opposing the motion, the defendant failed to raise a triable issue of fact.