JANICE FOLEY, plf-ap, v. THE CITY OF NEW YORK, def-res

3416. JANICE FOLEY, plf-ap, v. THE CITY OF NEW YORK, def-res — McMahon, Martine & Gallagher, LLP, Brooklyn (Patrick W. Brophy of counsel), for ap — Zachary W. Carter, Corporation Counsel, New York (Max O. McCann of counsel), for res — Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Frank P. Nervo, J.), entered October 8, 2015, which granted defendant's motion pursuant to CPLR 4404 to set aside the jury's verdict on liability and dismissed the complaint, reversed, on the law, without costs, the motion denied, and the jury verdict reinstated.

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3416. JANICE FOLEY, plf-ap, v. THE CITY OF NEW YORK, def-res — McMahon, Martine & Gallagher, LLP, Brooklyn (Patrick W. Brophy of counsel), for ap — Zachary W. Carter, Corporation Counsel, New York (Max O. McCann of counsel), for res — Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Frank P. Nervo, J.), entered October 8, 2015, which granted defendant’s motion pursuant to CPLR 4404 to set aside the jury’s verdict on liability and dismissed the complaint, reversed, on the law, without costs, the motion denied, and the jury verdict reinstated.

“Although ‘[t]he awareness of one defect in the area is insufficient to constitute notice of a different particular defect which caused the accident,’ where there are factual issues as to the precise location of the defect that caused a plaintiff’s fall and whether the defect is designated on the map, the question should be resolved by the jury” (Reyes v. City of New York, 63 AD3d 615, 615 [1st Dept 2009], lv denied 13 NY3d 710 [2009], quoting Roldan v. City of New York, 36 AD3d 484, 484 [1st Dept 2007]; see also Quinn v. City of New York, 305 AD2d 570, 571 [2d Dept 2003]). The trial court improperly set aside the verdict against the City for lack of legally sufficient evidence that the City had prior written notice of the alleged defect in the curb at the corner where plaintiff indicated she fell (Administrative Code of City of NY §7-201[c]). A jury verdict may not be set aside for legal insufficiency unless there is “no valid line of reasoning and permissible inferences which could possibly lead rational [jurors] to the conclusion reached by the jury on the basis of the evidence presented at trial” (Cohen v. Hallmark Cards, 45 NY2d 493, 499 [1978]). Here, it cannot be said that it was “utterly irrational for [the] jury to reach the result it has determined upon” (id.).

JANICE FOLEY, plf-ap, v. THE CITY OF NEW YORK, def-res

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