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Salter v. New York City Transit Authority

13 A.D.3d 92 Court N.Y. App. Div. Decision date 2004-12-07 English

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p. 92
Edward Salter, Appellant, v New York City Transit Authority et al., Respondents, et al., Defendants.
[785 NYS2d 452]

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Robert D. Lipp

p. 93
mann, J.), entered September 25, 2003, which granted defendants’ motions for summary judgment dismissing the complaint on the ground that plaintiff did not sustain a serious injury within the meaning of Insurance Law § 5102 (d), unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Defendants’ doctor’s report states that although at the time of the examination plaintiff complained of pain in his right cheekbone, a contusion there had resolved, and the report does not mention any swelling. This sufficed to show, prima facie (see Copeland v Kasalica, 6 AD3d 253 [2004]), that the right cheek swelling, depicted in plaintiffs photographs and claimed to be a “significant disfigurement” within the meaning of the statute, did not exist at the time of the August 2002 exam. Plaintiffs representation, bolstered by affidavits from his mother and a friend, that the swelling “occurred shortly after the [May 2000] accident and continues to this day [August 2003],” does not satisfy his burden of adducing “objective medical proof in competent form to support his claim” (id.). Concur—Nardelli, J.P., Mazzarelli, Andrias, Friedman and Gonzalez, JJ.

Statutes and regulations cited