Wilson v. Colosimo
Harold Wilson v. Christopher Colosimo
Full Opinion (html_with_citations)
Memorandum: Plaintiffs commenced this action seeking damages for injuries that Harold Wilson (plaintiff) allegedly sustained when the recycling truck he was driving was rear-ended by a vehicle owned by defendant R.J. Chevrolet, Inc., doing business as Bob Johnson Chevrolet, and operated by defendant Christopher Colosimo. According to plaintiffsâ supplemental bill of particulars, plaintiff allegedly sustained a serious injury under the permanent consequential limitation of use, the signif
Defendants met their initial burden on the motion by submitting an expertâs affirmation establishing as a matter of law that there was âno sign of injury to the cervical, thoracic or lumbar spine, and a marked exaggeration of the response to testing in the upper and lower extremities and no objective findings concerning neck, shoulders, lumbar spine, hips, knees, ankles, and feet.â Defendantsâ expert attributed plaintiffs complaints of pain to preexisting injuries and âmultilevel degenerative changes.â Furthermore, because defendantsâ expert concluded that the only objective medical findings of an injury to plaintiff were related to a preexisting degenerative condition of his spine, âplaintiff[s] had the burden to come forward with evidence addressing defendant[s] claimed lack of causationâ (Carrasco v Mendez, 4 NY3d 566, 580 [2005]; see Mendola v Doubrava, 99 AD3d 1247, 1248 [2012]; Webb v Bock, 77 AD3d 1414, 1415 [2010]).
In opposition to defendantsâ motion, however, plaintiffs raised triable issues of fact with respect to the permanent consequential limitation of use and significant limitation of use categories of serious injury by submitting the affidavit and attached report of plaintiffs treating chiropractor as well as an affidavit and attached reports and records from a physician specializing in occupational medicine. Those documents âcontain the requisite objective medical findings that raise issues of fact whether
Nevertheless, we agree with defendants that the court properly granted that part of their motion regarding the 90/180-day category of serious injury. Defendants submitted competent evidence establishing that plaintiffâs activities â âwere not curtailed to a great extentâ and that [he] therefore did not sustain a serious injury under the 90/180[-day] category of serious injuryâ (Schreiber v Krehbiel, 64 AD3d 1244, 1246 [2009]). Plaintiffs submitted nothing in opposition to defendantsâ motion with respect to that category and thus failed to raise a triable issue of fact whether plaintiff âwas unable to perform substantially all of the material acts that constituted [his] usual and customary daily activities during the requisite period of timeâ (Burke v Moran, 85 AD3d 1710, 1711 [2011]; see generally Licari v Elliott, 57 NY2d 230, 236 [1982]).
Finally, we conclude that the court properly denied plaintiffsâ cross motion and granted defendants summary judgment pursuant to CPLR 3212 (b) on plaintiffsâ claim for economic loss in excess of basic economic loss. Although a claim for economic loss does not require the plaintiff to have sustained a serious injury (see generally Montgomery, 38 NY2d at 47-48; Colvin, 15 AD3d at 900; Barnes v Kociszewski, 4 AD3d 824, 825 [2004]), plaintiffs here âfailed to produce any evidence in admissible form which supports such a claimâ (Watford v Boolukos, 5 AD3d 475, 476 [2004]; see Insurance Law §§ 5102 [a] [l]-[3]; 5104 [a]). While plaintiffs correctly contend that they need not await the full $50,000 payout for basic economic losses from their first-party no-fault policy before making a claim under Insurance Law § 5102 (a) for those additional economic losses that exceed the basic economic loss threshold, they still failed to establish that plaintiffs total economic losses here did actually âexceed basic economic lossâ (Watkins v Bank of Castile, 172 AD2d 1061, 1062 [1991] [emphasis added]; see Diaz v Lopresti, 57 AD3d 832, 833 [2008]). Present â Scudder, P.J., Centra, Fahey, Carni and Valentino, JJ.