RKT Wins Directed Verdict On Grounds
Of No "Serious Injury"

RKT attorney John Komar won a directed verdict and dismissal of plaintiff’s Complaint based on plaintiff’s failure to establish a "serious injury" on 10/26/07 following a two week trial in the case of Shapira v. The City of New York & Souleymane Diallo in Supreme Court, New York County.

Our client, a taxi driver going west on 10th Street at its intersection with 7th Avenue, struck a police cruiser which ran a red light while allegedly responding to an emergency call. The 32 year old plaintiff, a passenger in our client’s cab, claimed her body went forward upon impact and struck the taxi’s partition. She claimed injuries including a fractured nose, deviated septum, and two herniated cervical disks that would each eventually require surgery. Her settlement demand was $500,000.

After the plaintiff rested, John made a motion for a directed verdict on the grounds that the plaintiff failed to set forth sufficient evidence of a "serious injury" causally related to the accident warranting submission of the case to a jury. He argued that 1) there was no competent medical evidence admitted at trial to support plaintiff’s claim that she had a fractured nose; 2) that her deviated septum did not meet any of the criteria for "serious injury" under the New York Insurance Law; and 3) there was insufficient medical evidence to show that her two alleged herniated discs and sequelae met the threshold for a significant limitation of use of a body function or system. The Court was convinced that plaintiff failed to meet the "serious injury" threshold and therefore granted our motion for a direct verdict and dismissed plaintiff’s Complaint against our client.