SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department

1355 

CA 13-01094 

PRESENT: SMITH, J.P., FAHEY, LINDLEY, SCONIERS, AND WHALEN, JJ.

 

COLLETTE ALGER AND JEFFREY ALGER, 

PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS, 

 

V MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER MEDICAL CENTER, 

STRONG MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, NANCY WANG, PH.D., 

STEPHANIE LANIEWSKI, C.G.C., 

DEFENDANTS-RESPONDENTS, 

ET AL., DEFENDANTS. 

 

DAVID A. JOHNS, PULTNEYVILLE, AND CARL L. FEINSTOCK, ROCHESTER, FOR

PLAINTIFFS-APPELLANTS. 

MARTIN CLEARWATER & BELL LLP, NEW YORK CITY (STEWART G. MILCH OF

COUNSEL), FOR DEFENDANTS-RESPONDENTS.

 

Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Monroe County

(Evelyn Frazee, J.), entered January 29, 2013. The judgment awarded

costs and disbursements to defendants University of Rochester Medical

Center, Strong Memorial Hospital, Nancy Wang, Ph.D., and Stephanie

Laniewski, C.G.C. 

It is hereby ORDERED that the judgment so appealed from is

unanimously affirmed without costs.

Memorandum: Plaintiffs commenced this action seeking damages for

physical and emotional injuries allegedly sustained as a result of the

decision of Collette Alger (plaintiff) to terminate her pregnancy. 

Plaintiffs alleged that such decision was the result of defendants’

negligence in performing prenatal diagnostic tests and advising them

regarding the results of such tests. After a trial, the jury rendered

a verdict in favor of defendants, finding that Stephanie Laniewski,

C.G.C. was not negligent and that University of Rochester Medical

Center, Strong Memorial Hospital (Hospital) and Nancy Wang, Ph.D. were

negligent but that their negligence was not a proximate cause of

plaintiffs’ injuries. Supreme Court denied plaintiffs’ posttrial

motion seeking, inter alia, to set aside the verdict as against the

weight of the evidence. We affirm. 

“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”
-2- 1355 

CA 13-01094 

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

dismissed 17 NY3d 734 [internal quotation marks omitted]; see Lolik v

Big V Supermarkets, 86 NY2d 744, 746). Further, “[w]here a verdict

can be reconciled with a reasonable view of the evidence, the

successful party is entitled to the presumption that the jury adopted

that view” (Schreiber v University of Rochester Med. Ctr., 88 AD3d

1262, 1263 [internal quotation marks omitted]). We conclude that a

reasonable view of the evidence supports the jury’s verdict that

Laniewski, a certified genetic counselor, was not negligent. There

was conflicting testimony concerning the communications between

Laniewski and plaintiffs, and “ ‘great deference is accorded to the

jury given its opportunity to see and hear the witnesses’ ” (Seong Yim

Kim v New York City Tr. Auth., 87 AD3d 531, 532). 

With respect to the other defendants, we conclude that the

verdict finding that they were negligent but that their negligence was

not a proximate cause of plaintiffs’ injuries is not inherently

inconsistent (see Finnegan v Peter, Sr. & Mary L. Liberatore Family

Ltd. Partnership, 90 AD3d 1676, 1677). Nor is that verdict against

the weight of the evidence unless the issues are so inextricably

interwoven that it would be logically impossible to find negligence

without also finding proximate cause (see Schreiber, 88 AD3d at 1263). 

We conclude that there is a fair interpretation of the evidence

pursuant to which the jury could have found that defendants Hospital

and Wang were negligent in reporting erroneous test results to

plaintiffs, but that their negligence did not proximately cause 

plaintiffs’ injuries. The evidence presented “factual question[s] . .

. whether, under the circumstances, it could reasonably be expected

that plaintiff . . . would elect to undergo an abortion” (Lynch v Bay

Ridge Obstetrical & Gynecological Assoc., 72 NY2d 632, 636), and

whether that decision was sufficiently independent of defendants’

conduct to constitute an intervening cause. Those questions presented

issues for the jury to resolve (see id.) and we decline to disturb its

resolution of those issues in defendants’ favor (see Wilson v Mary

Imogene Bassett Hosp., 307 AD2d 748, 748-749). We reject plaintiffs’

contention that the court abused its discretion in permitting several

witnesses to provide expert testimony on the issue of proximate cause

(see Kettles v City of Rochester, 21 AD3d 1424, 1426). Finally,

plaintiffs’ further contention that the structure of the verdict sheet

caused the jury to confuse proximate cause and comparative fault is

unpreserved for our review and in any event is lacking in merit (see

McFadden v Oneida, Ltd., 93 AD3d 1309, 1310-1311). 

Entered: February 7, 2014 Frances E. Cafarell

Clerk of the Court