Jeffery v. Queen City Foods, LLC, and Maria Farinacci

Summary

The New York Appellate Division, Fourth Department, affirmed an order granting the plaintiff summary judgment on negligence, proximate cause, and serious injury and denying the defendants' cross motion. The court held that the defendants' biomechanical expert was not qualified to opine on injury causation and that the plaintiff established a serious shoulder injury under the permanent consequential limitation and significant limitation categories of Insurance Law § 5102(d).

Holdings

1. Because defendants did not challenge the portion of the order granting Jeffery summary judgment on negligence, they abandoned any contention regarding that issue.
2. A biomechanical expert is not qualified to render an opinion regarding injury causation; therefore, defendants could not rely on the biomechanical expert's opinion to create a conflict concerning whether the accident caused Jeffery's shoulder injury.
3. Supreme Court properly denied defendants' cross-motion and granted Jeffery's motion with respect to serious injury and proximate cause because defendants did not contest that Jeffery established a serious injury as a matter of law and failed to raise a causation conflict through competent evidence.

Questions Presented

1. Whether defendants were entitled to summary judgment dismissing the complaint on the ground that Jeffery did not sustain a serious injury.
2. Whether defendants raised a triable issue regarding whether the accident caused Jeffery's shoulder injury through the opinion of a biomechanical expert.
3. Whether Supreme Court properly granted Jeffery summary judgment on serious injury and proximate cause.
4. Whether defendants preserved any challenge to the portion of the order granting Jeffery summary judgment on negligence.

Disposition

affirmed