Yonghong Xia v. Zhao Xian Zeng

• Docket Number: 2022-00539,Index No. 707164/20
• Decision Date: 30 August 2023
• Citation: 2023 NY Slip Op 04435
• Parties: Yonghong Xia, plaintiff-respondent, v. Zhao Xian Zeng, et al., defendants-respondents, Paul Gornie Briggs, et al., appellants.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

2023 NY Slip Op 04435

Yonghong Xia, plaintiff-respondent,
v.
Zhao Xian Zeng, et al., defendants-respondents,

Paul Gornie Briggs, et al., appellants.

No. 2022-00539, Index No. 707164/20

Supreme Court of New York, Second Department

August 30, 2023

Eric D. Feldman, Melville, NY (Dominic P. Zafonte of counsel), for appellants.

Steven Louros, New York, NY, for plaintiff-respondent.

Jennifer S. Adams, Yonkers, NY (Salvatore A. Grimaldo of counsel), for defendants-respondents.

FRANCESCA E. CONNOLLY, J.P. LARA J. GENOVESI, HELEN VOUTSINAS, LILLIAN WAN, JJ.

DECISION & ORDER

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the defendants Paul Gornie Briggs and ECCO III Enterprise, Inc., appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Maurice E. Muir, J.), entered January 5, 2022. The order, insofar as appealed from, granted those branches of the plaintiff's motion which were for summary judgment against those defendants on the issue of whether the plaintiff was at fault in the happening of the accident, for summary judgment on the issue of liability insofar as asserted against those defendants, and for summary judgment dismissing those defendants' second affirmative defense alleging comparative negligence, and granted that branch of the cross-motion of the defendants Zhao Xian Zeng and Li Tan Construction Corp. which was for summary judgment dismissing the cross-claim asserted by the defendants Paul Gornie Briggs and ECCO III Enterprise, Inc., against them.

ORDERED that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with one bill of costs payable to the respondents appearing separately and filing separate briefs.

On May 3, 2019, the plaintiff allegedly was injured in an automobile accident which occurred in Queens. At the time of the accident, the plaintiff was a rear-seat passenger in a vehicle operated by the defendant Zhao Xian Zeng (hereinafter Zeng) and owned by the defendant Li Tan Construction Corp. (hereinafter LTCC). That vehicle was struck in the rear by a vehicle operated by the defendant Paul Gornie Briggs and owned by the defendant ECCO III Enterprise, Inc. (hereinafter ECCO).

In June 2020, the plaintiff commenced this action against the defendants to recover damages for personal injuries. In their answer, Briggs and ECCO asserted, inter alia, an affirmative defense alleging comparative negligence, and asserted a cross-claim against Zeng and LTCC. Thereafter, the plaintiff moved, among other things, for...