Milek v. DPM Contr. Servs., Inc.

2025 NY Slip Op 50414(U)
CourtNew York Supreme Court, Richmond County
DecidedMarch 24, 2025
DocketIndex No. 150298/2023
StatusUnpublished

This text of 2025 NY Slip Op 50414(U) (Milek v. DPM Contr. Servs., Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court, Richmond County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Milek v. DPM Contr. Servs., Inc., 2025 NY Slip Op 50414(U) (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2025).

Opinion

Milek v DPM Contr. Servs., Inc. (2025 NY Slip Op 50414(U)) [*1]
Milek v DPM Contr. Servs., Inc.
2025 NY Slip Op 50414(U)
Decided on March 24, 2025
Supreme Court, Richmond County
DiDomenico, J.
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.


Decided on March 24, 2025
Supreme Court, Richmond County


Dawid Milek, Plaintiff

against

DPM Contracting Services, Inc. and JOSE MENDEZ, Defendants.




Index No. 150298/2023

Plaintiff is represented by:
Ryan Boisvert Charder Esq.
Cohen & Cohen Personal Injury Lawyers
104-70 Queens Blvd., Suite 312
Forest Hills, NY 11375
718-275-7779

Defendant is represented by
Deborah Zachary Esq.
Zachary & Zachary, P.C.
75 Little Clove Rd
Staten Island, NY 10301
718-442-2828 Catherine M. DiDomenico, J.

Recitation as required by CPLR 2219(a) of the papers considered in the review of Motion Sequence Numbers 001 & 002

Document                 Numbered
Notice of Motion by Plaintiff (001) 1
Notice of Cross Motion (002) by Defendant 2
Opposition to 002 by Plaintiff 3
Reply Affirmation in further support of 002 by Defendant 4
Conditional Order of Preclusion 5
Plaintiff's Verified Bill of Particulars 6
Transcript of Oral Argument dated 9/26/24 7

Upon the foregoing cited papers, the Decision and Order is as follows:

Procedural History / Present Motions

The present personal injury action was commenced with the filing of a Summons and Complaint on February 14, 2023. The case relates to a motor vehicle accident which occurred on November 8, 2022, in Staten Island, New York. Plaintiff claims that as a result of this accident [*2]he sustained serious injuries to his cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine, and a tendon tear in his left shoulder. Before the completion of discovery, but after Plaintiff's deposition and Independent Medical Examination ("IME") were held, both parties cross moved for summary judgment.

By Notice of Motion dated March 19, 2024 (Seq. No. 001) Plaintiff seeks an order granting him summary judgment on the issue of liability. Plaintiff also seeks an order precluding Defendants from offering any evidence at trial on the issue of liability, as they failed to appear for depositions. On May 22, 2024, Defendants cross-moved (Seq. No. 002) for an order granting them summary judgment on the damages issue of whether Plaintiff sustained a "serious injury" as defined by Section 5102(d) of the Insurance Law.

Motions 001 and 002 were argued on August 16, 2024. However, only Plaintiff's request for discovery sanctions was addressed on that date. Plaintiff's discovery motion was conditionally granted, and Defendants were afforded a final opportunity to be deposed, or they would be precluded from testifying at trial. The conditional preclusion order was self-executing, and the balance of the motions seeking summary judgment were adjourned to September 26, 2024.

On September 26, 2024, both parties' motions for summary judgment were argued and submitted for decision. During oral argument it was established that Defendants had not appeared for their depositions and thus were precluded from contesting the issue of liability. Moreover, Defendant's counsel admitted that absent participation from her clients, she had "no facts" with which to oppose Plaintiff's motion. Plaintiff met his initial burden to establish his entitlement to summary judgment by offering admissible proof that he was proceeding straight through an intersection when Defendant Mendez made an unsafe left turn into his path of travel. See VTL §§1163(a); 1141. In the absence of opposition, Plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability is hereby granted. See Morante v. Blaney, 2025 NY Slip Op 00086 (2d Dept. 2025). This leaves only Defendant's motion for summary judgment on the issue of whether Plaintiff meets the serious injury threshold.



Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment

Defendants, DPM Contracting Services, Inc. and Jose Mendez, move by Notice of Motion (Seq. No. 002) for an order granting them summary judgment on the issue of whether Plaintiff, Dawid Milek, sustained a "serious injury" as defined by Section 5102(d) of the Insurance Law. Defendants have submitted a copy of Plaintiff's deposition testimony to establish the facts surrounding the accident and its aftermath. In addition, Defendants have provided a copy of an IME Report prepared by their expert witness Dr. Arnold T. Berman M.D., a board-certified orthopedic surgeon. Defendants have also provided a copy of a MRI film review conducted by a board-certified radiologist, Dr. Audrey L. Eisenstadt, M.D.

Dr. Berman's report details the medical treatment received by Plaintiff related to this accident and lists the medical records he reviewed to obtain this information. Dr. Berman conducted a physical examination of Plaintiff on December 26, 2023. As set forth at length in his report, Dr. Berman concluded that any injuries that were related to the present accident were "resolved." He further observed that Plaintiff exhibited a full range of motion in all relevant areas upon testing. In relation to Plaintiff's alleged spinal injuries, Dr. Berman admits the presence of a "signal abnormality" in his MRI but claims that the condition was chronic, pre-[*3]existing and could not have been caused by this single motor vehicle accident. As for Plaintiff's alleged shoulder injury, Dr. Berman opined that there were no objective findings of an ongoing condition upon examination and that any injury that occurred has since resolved. He found no causal relationship between the shoulder injury and any of Plaintiff's complaints of pain at the time of examination. Finally, Dr. Berman opined that Plaintiff did not require orthopedic treatment of any sort.

In addition to Dr. Berman's report, Defendant relies upon the expert opinion of Dr. Audrey Eisenstadt M.D., a board-certified radiologist, who reviewed Plaintiff's MRI films. In her report, Dr. Eisenstadt indicated that she first reviewed an MRI of Plaintiff's cervical spine taken sixteen days after the accident on November 8, 2022. Dr. Eisenstadt opined that the condition in Plaintiff's cervical spine did not constitute a bulge or herniation and that the signal change at the C4-5 level was "degenerative" in nature and had likely developed over a period of at least six months before the date of accident. Dr. Eisenstadt concluded that she found no causation associated with the condition in Plaintiff's neck and any traumatic injury. As for Plaintiff's left shoulder, Dr. Eisenstadt reviewed an MRI that was taken approximately twelve weeks after the accident. This MRI showed evidence of a "small partial tear of the distal supraspinatus tendon." While less conclusive than her findings regarding Plaintiff's spine, Dr. Eisenstadt opined that she did not see any "active inflammation" or other evidence of "recent trauma" in the imaging.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Toure v. Avis Rent a Car Systems, Inc.
774 N.E.2d 1197 (New York Court of Appeals, 2002)
Pommells v. Perez
830 N.E.2d 278 (New York Court of Appeals, 2005)
Perl v. Meher
960 N.E.2d 424 (New York Court of Appeals, 2011)
John v. Linden
124 A.D.3d 598 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2015)
Green v. Domino's Pizza, LLC
140 A.D.3d 546 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2016)
Cattouse v. Smith
2017 NY Slip Op 537 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2017)
Nicholson v. Kwarteng
2020 NY Slip Op 870 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2020)
Perez-Vargas v. Aarron
2020 NY Slip Op 05603 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2020)
Cortez v. Bray
2021 NY Slip Op 01352 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2021)
Ramkumar v. Grand Style Transportation Enterprises Inc.
998 N.E.2d 801 (New York Court of Appeals, 2013)
Licari v. Elliott
441 N.E.2d 1088 (New York Court of Appeals, 1982)
Grasso v. Angerami
588 N.E.2d 76 (New York Court of Appeals, 1991)
Kearse v. New York City Transit Authority
16 A.D.3d 45 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2005)
Stevens v. Homiak Transport, Inc.
21 A.D.3d 300 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2005)
Gavin v. Sati
29 A.D.3d 734 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2006)
Vidor v. Davila
37 A.D.3d 826 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2007)
Nannarone v. Ott
41 A.D.3d 441 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2007)
Choi Ping Wong v. Innocent
54 A.D.3d 384 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2008)
Harris v. Ariel Transportation Corp.
55 A.D.3d 323 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2008)
Staff v. Mair Yshua
59 A.D.3d 614 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2025 NY Slip Op 50414(U), Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/milek-v-dpm-contr-servs-inc-nysupctrichmond-2025.