Nunez-Wilson v. Carmo Realty

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, etc., the plaintiffs appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (Spinner, J.), dated April 28, 2010, which, upon a jury verdict on the issue of liability, granted that branch of the motion of the defendant Elite Gymnastics Center, Inc., which was pursuant to CPLR 4404 (a) to set aside the verdict against it as unsupported by legally sufficient evidence and for judgment as a matter of law.

Ordered that the order is affirmed, with costs.

A verdict must be supported by legally sufficient evidence, and will be set aside and judgment entered in favor of the defendant if the reviewing court determines that, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, there is “simply no valid line of reasoning and permissible inferences which could possibly lead [a] rational [person] to the conclusion reached by the jury on the basis of the evidence presented at trial” (Cohen v Hallmark Cards, 45 NY2d 493 , 499 [1978]; see Bermudez v New York City Bd. of Educ., 83 AD3d 878 [2011]; Giambruno v Crazy Donkey Bar & Grill, 65 AD3d 1190 , 1192 [2009]). Here, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, there is no valid line of reasoning to support the jury’s findings that the defendant Elite Gymnastics Center,

Accordingly, the Supreme Court properly granted that branch of Elite’s motion which was to set aside the verdict against it on the issue of liability as unsupported by legally sufficient evidence and for judgment as a matter of law. Rivera, J.P., Florio, Dickerson and Eng, JJ., concur.