Ismail v. City of New York

18 Misc. 2d 818, 181 N.Y.S.2d 848, 1959 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 4479
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 21, 1959
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 18 Misc. 2d 818 (Ismail v. City of New York) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ismail v. City of New York, 18 Misc. 2d 818, 181 N.Y.S.2d 848, 1959 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 4479 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1959).

Opinion

Louis L. Friedman, J.

On February 11, 1957 an accident occurred at the corner of Broadway and Hooper Street, in the Borough of Brooklyn, City of New York. At that time the plaintiff Ismail was riding as a passenger upon a motorcycle owned by one Hussein (not served in this action) and operated by the plaintiff Vurgun. It is the claim of the plaintiffs that the motorcycle was in collision with a truck of the Department of Sanitation of the City of New York, and that as a result of that collision, the motorcycle went out of control, struck another motor truck on the opposite side of the street and threw both plaintiffs to the pavement, thus causing them the personal injuries for which they each brought separate actions. Plaintiff Ismail sued both the City of New York and the said Vurgun, while in another action, plaintiff Vurgun sued only the City of New York. In the title of the present action, Vurgun is named as both a plaintiff and a defendant by reason of a consolidation order entered on October 31, 1958. For the pur[819]*819poses of this decision, however, the two actions may be regarded separately.

In his action, plaintiff Ismail contended that the operators of both the Sanitation Department vehicle and the motorcycle were negligent. In the Vurgun action, it was asserted that only the Department of Sanitation vehicle was responsible for the happening of the accident. The case was tried for almost two weeks, and by its verdict, the jury found that the operator of the Sanitation Department truck was solely responsible for this accident. Motions to set aside the verdict were made by the City of New York, and said defendant also moved for a renewal of a motion made during the course of the trial, that a mistrial be declared. Decision was reserved upon those motions, and it is those motions which are to be decided at this time.

The issue as to liability was sharply contested. Both plaintiffs contended that the sanitation truck made a sudden left turn, thus causing a collision with the motorcycle, which was to the left of said truck, going in the same direction. The city, on the other hand, contended that its vehicle was standing still, waiting for the light to change, so that it could make a left turn, and further contended that there was no contact at all with the motorcycle. The version of each of the parties was supported by a number of witnesses, and since the evidence with respect to liability was sufficient to sustain the jury’s determination of the facts, the court may not interfere with such determination.

Two other questions, however, present themselves for determination and they are respectively (1) whether the incident which occurred during the course of the trial was so prejudicial to the defendant that it justified the granting of a mistrial, and (2) whether the amount of the verdict is warranted by the evidence. The court will discuss each of these questions separately.

After the trial had proceeded for several days and some medical and other proof had been presented, plaintiff collapsed in the courtroom. Immediately prior to that time he had been seated in the spectators’ section of the courtroom, and the first indication that anything was about to occur was when he arose from his seat, spoke loudly and then fell to the floor behind one of the benches. His wife who had been seated alongside of him at that time, at first attempted to assist him, and then ran forward to where plaintiff’s lawyer was standing directly before the Bench and alongside of the jury box. In the meantime, the court had already directed that the jury [820]*820be taken from the courtroom and that instead of going through the main doorway of the courtroom, which would bring them past the place where plaintiff was lying on the floor, that they instead be taken through the side door into the Judge’s robing room. As the jury started to leave the box, plaintiff’s wife ran up to plaintiff’s attorney, speaking in a loud voice and calling for help, and also turned to the jury asking that somebody help her husband. The exact details of what occurred were shortly thereafter dictated into the minutes by the court, and no purpose will be served by repeating all of the details here. It is the court’s recollection that the jury remained in the courtroom for about two or three minutes between the time that the incident occurred and the time when they all finally departed into the robing room. They remained out of the courtroom for about a half or three quarters of an hour while emergency aid was given to the plaintiff. He thereafter left the courtroom under his own power and was assisted into an ambulance and taken to Kings County Hospital. After plaintiff had left, the jury returned and the trial resumed. In the meantime, and during the same recess, the City of New York had moved for a mistrial and its motion was denied for the reasons stated by the court upon the record. Both the plaintiff and the codefendant objected to the granting of a mistrial, but it must be borne in mind that the codefendant is also a coplaintiff in the action.

At the time that plaintiff collapsed, one of plaintiff’s physicians- was present in the courtroom prepared to testify in plaintiff’s behalf. He' witnessed the entire occurrence, and when he was later called to the stand, he testified that the collapse of the plaintiff was a manifestation of one of the injuries which plaintiff had sustained in this very accident. Other testimony, which was received during the trial both before the incident and thereafter, indicated that one of the end results of this accident and the injuries which plaintiff had sustained, was a brain condition which might very well have caused and in fact did cause the kind of spell which the jury witnessed.

Confronted with this medical evidence, the court took the position that what the jury witnessed was but an exhibition of the very injuries which they were being required to pass upon, and that under such circumstances, the defendant was not entitled to a mistrial. The court stated at that time that proper instructions would be given to the jury during the course of the charge, and in addition thereto, the jury was advised by the court during the course of the day, that since they had [821]*821seen plaintiff fall to the floor, they should also be made aware of the fact, and they were told, that plaintiff was able to leave the court on his own two feet.

The court is satisfied that the collapse of the plaintiff in the courtroom was not feigned but was spontaneous. The court is satisfied that the jury was not affected thereby to the prejudice of the defendant.

When the court charged the jury, specific mention was made of plaintiff’s collapse, and the jury was warned most explicitly that their sympathy was not to be excited in favor of the plaintiff by reason of this incident and that their verdict was only to be affected thereby insofar as they accepted the plaintiff’s medical proof that said incident was a manifestation of the injuries which plaintiff had sustained as a result of the accident itself. The jury was an intelligent one and it was evident to the court that they not only understood, but that they intended to and did follow the court’s instructions in this regard, and in the light of the authorities hereinafter cited, and the court’s own reaction to plaintiff’s collapse and the possible effect that it might have had upon the jury, the court is satisfied that no mistrial should have been granted.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
18 Misc. 2d 818, 181 N.Y.S.2d 848, 1959 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 4479, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ismail-v-city-of-new-york-nysupct-1959.