Car accident lawsuit dismissed

A state appeals court has reversed a lower court ruling and dismissed a lawsuit seeking damages for injuries suffered in a car accident.

In March 2022, state Supreme Court Justice Dennis E. Ward denied a defense motion seeking summary judgment dismissing the complaint.

Now the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Fourth Department, has reversed that ruling and granted the motion to dismiss the complaint.

Plaintiff Laura Gomez filed the lawsuit seeking damages for injuries she suffered when her vehicle was struck by a vehicle operated by defendant Richard P. Buczynski.

The accident happened at an intersection when Gomez attempted to make a left turn in front of Buczynski’s oncoming vehicle.

Buczynski filed a motion for summary judgment to dismiss the complaint “or, in the alternative, for an order directing the bifurcation of the trial,” according to the Fourth Department’s decision.

“We conclude that Supreme Court erred in denying defendant’s motion,” the Fourth Department wrote.

“It is well settled that a driver who has the right-of-way is entitled to anticipate that other drivers will obey the traffic laws requiring them to yield to the driver with the right-of-way … Although a driver with the right-of-way has a duty to use reasonable care to avoid a collision … a driver with the right-of-way who has only seconds to react to a vehicle that has failed to yield is not comparatively negligent for failing to avoid the collision,” the court wrote.

The Fourth Department ruled that Buczynski “met his initial burden of establishing that he was not negligent because he had the right-of-way … was operating his vehicle in a lawful and prudent manner, and was traveling at a lawful rate of speed, and that there was nothing he could have done to avoid the accident, which occurred when plaintiff suddenly turned left into defendant’s lane of travel.”

“We further conclude that plaintiff failed to raise an issue of fact in opposition to the motion. Contrary to plaintiff’s assertion, the deposition testimony did not raise an issue of fact whether defendant was negligently passing another vehicle on the right in violation of Vehicle and Traffic Law,” according to the decision.

“There was conflicting deposition testimony about the precise lane in which defendant was traveling at the time of the collision, but there is no dispute that defendant never changed lanes … at the time of the collision,” the court wrote.

The plaintiff’s assertion that defendant unsafely attempted to go around another vehicle at the time of the accident is based on speculation and is insufficient to defeat a motion for summary judgment,” the court wrote.

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