SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department

1189 

CA 13-02248 

PRESENT: SCUDDER, P.J., SMITH, PERADOTTO, CARNI, AND SCONIERS, JJ. 

 

ANTONIO TALLARICO, AN INFANT, BY AND THROUGH 

DOMINIC TALLARICO AND MARY TALLARICO, HIS 

PARENTS AND NATURAL GUARDIANS, AND DOMINIC 

TALLARICO AND MARY TALLARICO, INDIVIDUALLY, 

PLAINTIFFS-RESPONDENTS, 

 

V MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JAYASELVI KOLLI, M.D., DEFENDANT, 

AND NIAGARA FALLS MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER, 

DEFENDANT-APPELLANT. 

 

FAGER AMSLER & KELLER L.L.P., LATHAM (NANCY E. MAY-SKINNER OF

COUNSEL), FOR DEFENDANT-APPELLANT. 

DEMPSEY & DEMPSEY, BUFFALO (HELEN KANEY DEMPSEY OF COUNSEL), FOR

PLAINTIFFS-RESPONDENTS. 

 

Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Niagara County

(Catherine R. Nugent Panepinto, J.), entered September 25, 2013. The

order, insofar as appealed from, granted that part of the motion of

plaintiffs seeking to set aside a verdict with respect to defendant

Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center. 

It is hereby ORDERED that the order insofar as appealed from is

unanimously reversed on the law without costs, the posttrial motion is

denied in its entirety and the verdict with respect to defendant

Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center is reinstated. 

Memorandum: Plaintiffs, individually and on behalf of their son,

commenced this medical malpractice action seeking damages for injuries

allegedly sustained by the child during labor and delivery. After a

trial, the jury rendered a verdict in favor of defendants, finding

that defendant Jayaselvi Kolli, M.D. was not negligent and that

defendant Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center (hospital) was

negligent, but that its negligence was not a proximate cause of the

child’s injuries. Supreme Court subsequently granted in part

plaintiffs’ posttrial motion to set aside the verdict as against the

weight of the evidence by setting aside the verdict in favor of the

hospital and ordering a new trial on the issue of proximate cause. We

agree with the hospital that the court erred in granting in part

plaintiffs’ posttrial motion, and we therefore reverse the order

insofar as appealed from, deny the posttrial motion in its entirety,

and reinstate the verdict with respect to the hospital. 
-2- 1189 

CA 13-02248 

“A verdict rendered in favor of a defendant may be successfully

challenged as against the weight of the evidence only when the

evidence so preponderated in favor of the plaintiff[s] that it could 

not have been reached on any fair interpretation of the evidence”

(Krieger v McDonald’s Rest. of N.Y., Inc., 79 AD3d 1827, 1828, lv

dismissed 17 NY3d 734 [internal quotation marks omitted]). We

conclude that there is a fair interpretation of the evidence pursuant

to which the jury could have found that the labor and delivery nurses

employed by the hospital were negligent, but that their negligence did

not proximately cause the child’s injuries. Defendants’ expert

testified that the child’s injuries occurred in utero, no earlier than

a week before delivery and, thus, that any negligence on the part of

the hospital nurses did not cause or contribute to his injuries. The

court improperly invaded the jury’s province in rejecting that opinion

and accepting the contrary opinion of the child’s treating physician

(see Reilly v Ninia, 81 AD3d 913, 915; Barton v Youmans, 24 AD3d 1192,

1192). Contrary to the court’s determination, we conclude that the

opinion of defendants’ expert was neither speculative (cf. Vergara v

Scripps Howard, 261 AD2d 302, 307, lv denied 94 NY2d 757), nor

contrary to the evidence (cf. Persaud v City of New York, 307 AD2d

346, 347, lv denied 1 NY3d 502). “Indeed, this trial presented a

classic battle of the experts on the determinative issue of causation”

(Russell v City of Buffalo, 34 AD3d 1291, 1293), and it was for the

jury to decide which expert was more credible (see Radish v DeGraff

Mem. Hosp., 291 AD2d 873, 874). 

Entered: November 21, 2014 Frances E. Cafarell

Clerk of the Court