SKETCHES OF COURT: Liability verdict for plaintiffs does not yield damages award in car accident trial
In this courtroom sketch, Hon. Theresa Ciccotto listens as defendant’s attorney John DiFalco (standing), of the law firm Bilello & Associates, conducts a cross-examination of a plaintiff in the motor vehicle accident trial Hayles et al v. Varghee in Kings County Civil Term.
Attorney Ross Raggio (seated at left), of the law offices of Krentsel & Guzman, represented the co-plaintiffs, who claimed serious injury in a March 2015 collision on the Verrazano Bridge roadway when their vehicle was struck from the rear. The co-plaintiffs were the driver and passengers.
At issue was the determination of damages, after the liability verdict found Varghee to be 100 percent negligent in the accident. Collectively, the co-plaintiffs claimed injuries inclusive of a right shoulder fracture, a meniscus tear with surgery, bilateral shoulder tears and disc herniation.
DiFalco’s expert witness doctors generally related the injuries to degeneration, such as the wear-and-tear consistent with running track in college, and not with trauma related to the collision. DiFalco noted that the plaintiffs’ complaints of pain began weeks, and as late as a year, after the accident.
The jury deliberated briefly before returning a unanimous verdict for the defendants, rejecting the claim of a right-shoulder fracture or of any significant or consequential limitations as a result of the accident.