AR Med. Rehabilitation, P.C. v. MVAIC

Marshall & Marshall, PLLC (Barbara Carabell of counsel), for appellant. Gary Tsirelman, P.C. (Stefan Belinfanti of counsel), for respondent.

Appeal from a decision of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Kings County (Steven Z. Mostofsky, J.), dated November 19, 2014, and from a judgment of that court entered October 8, 2015. The judgment, entered pursuant to the decision, after a nonjury trial, awarded plaintiff the principal sum of $8,557.97.

ORDERED that so much of the appeal as is from the decision is dismissed, as no appeal lies therefrom (see CCA 1702); and it is further,

ORDERED that the judgment is reversed, with $30 costs, and the matter is remitted to the Civil Court for a new trial.

At a nonjury trial in this action by a provider to recover assigned first-party no-fault benefits, the sole issue was whether plaintiff's assignor was injured during the underlying motor vehicle accident. Following the trial, the Civil Court awarded judgment to plaintiff. Upon a review of the record, we find that the court erroneously excluded the police report regarding the accident at issue from evidence. As the report was material to the sole issue before the court, we find that a new trial is required.

Accordingly, the judgment is reversed and the matter is remitted to the Civil Court for a new trial.

PESCE, P.J., ALIOTTA and SIEGAL, JJ., concur.