Summary
This New York Appellate Division decision affirms the trial court's denial of a motion for summary judgment in a personal injury action stemming from a motor vehicle collision. The moving defendants contended that another driver's failure to yield the right-of-way constituted the sole proximate cause of the accident. However, the appellate court found that the record raised triable issues of fact regarding the host driver's alleged speeding and failure to observe the intersection, thereby preventing them from establishing they were without fault. Accordingly, the court upheld the denial of summary judgment, noting that multiple actors can contribute to a single accident's proximate cause.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the moving defendants are entitled to summary judgment by showing that Xianghong Tang's negligence was the sole proximate cause of the accident
- Whether a defendant moving for summary judgment in a negligence action bears the burden of establishing that he or she was not at fault
Holdings
- The moving defendants failed to establish that Xianghong Tang's negligence was the sole proximate cause; therefore the summary judgment motion was denied.
- A defendant moving for summary judgment in a negligence action has the burden of establishing, prima facie, that he or she was not at fault in the happening of the accident.
Key quotations
“Even though the driver with the right-of-way is entitled to assume that other drivers will obey the traffic laws requiring them to yield, he or she still has a duty to exercise reasonable care to avoid a collision with another vehicle already in the intersection.”
“There can be more than one proximate cause of an accident.”
Factual background
The plaintiff was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Katrina Shakema Jones and owned by Tamara Bauvais when that vehicle collided with a vehicle driven by Xianghong Tang at the intersection of 76th Street and 17th Avenue in Kings County. The host vehicle was traveling north on 17th Avenue without a stop sign, while Tang's vehicle was traveling east on 76th Street, which was controlled by a stop sign. The collision caused personal injuries to the plaintiff.
Procedural history
The Supreme Court, Kings County denied the moving defendants' motion for summary judgment; the moving defendants appealed that order.