*1 Plaintiffs move here to set aside the jury’s verdict for defendants on liability, asking this Court to: 1) direct a verdict in favor of plaintiffs Ronald Sirois, Senior and Ronald Giordano1; or 2) order a new trial on liability for all four plaintiffs in this matter, which arose from a dispute between patrons at the Oriental Plaza Chinese & Japanese Restaurant on May 26, 2012. For our purposes, the restaurant, which is located at 1845 Richmond Avenue in Staten Island, is the same entity as The O.P. Trading, Inc., a defendant in the second-captioned case.The Oriental Plaza has two floors and a basement. The first floor is the restaurant that is open to the public; the upper and lower floors serve as banquet rooms. The second floor was the setting of a first communion party for the daughter of Jenna Pesce, then the partner of plaintiff Joseph Sirois, who had organized the party. More than 100 adults and children attended, including the other three plaintiffs: Joseph Sirois’s father and brother (Ronald, Sr. and Jr.), as well as a friend, Ronald Giordano.Two flights down, about 60 people were marking another first communion — for the daughter of Jeanine and Carlo Monroy, who were friends of defendant Vincent Ferrara and his wife, Kerry. The Ferraras had brought their three-year old daughter.Mr. Ferrara twice walked upstairs to the Sirois’ party to look for and retrieve his three-year old, who, attracted by the music, had wandered up. Words were exchanged on at least one of these occasions. Ferrara, upset that this had happened in front of his daughter, had “five shots” over a fairly short period — drinks that he testified were given to him by Mr. Monroy and others from their group. At some point, Joseph Sirois threw a chair in anger.
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