Case Name: Catrina Saraf, Appellant, v. Roger Smith, Jr., Respondent
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 2015-05-01
Citations: 128 A.D.3d 1422
Docket Number: 
Parties: Catrina Saraf, Appellant, v Roger Smith, Jr., Respondent.
Judges: 
Reporter: Appellate Division Reports
Volume: 128
Pages: 1422–1422

Head Matter:
Catrina Saraf, Appellant, v Roger Smith, Jr., Respondent.
[8 NYS3d 754]

Opinion:
Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Niagara County (Richard C. Kloch, Sr., A.J.), entered January 29, 2014 in a personal injury action. The order denied the motion of plaintiff to set aside a verdict.
It is hereby ordered that the order so appealed from is unanimously affirmed without costs.
Memorandum: Plaintiff commenced this action seeking damages for injuries she sustained in a three-vehicle accident. The accident occurred after defendant's vehicle struck the vehicle in front of him when that vehicle stopped to make a left turn. Plaintiff attempted to avoid a collision with defendant's vehicle by steering into the oncoming lane of traffic, but her vehicle struck the front driver's side of defendant's vehicle.
Supreme Court properly denied plaintiffs motion to set aside the verdict in favor of defendant as against the weight of the evidence. "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 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 [2010], lv dismissed 17 NY3d 734 [2011] [internal quotation marks omitted]). Here, a fair interpretation of the evidence supports the jury's determination that, with respect to the collision with plaintiff, defendant was not negligent (see Pelletier v Lahm, 111 AD3d 807, 808 [2013], affd 24 NY3d 966 [2014]; Flynn v Elrac, Inc., 98 AD3d 938, 940 [2012]). Present — Scudder, P.J., Centra, Peradotto, Sconiers and Valentino, JJ.