In Smithson v. Garcia, the Appellate Division reversed the denial of a new trial on damages where the jury found that plaintiff had sustained a permanent injury meeting the verbal tort threshold, but awarded nominal damages of one dollar. The Court found it clear that plaintiff’s permanent injury stemmed from 2 herniated discs attributable to the motor vehicle accident and concluded that allowing the jury’s one dollar damages award to stand would be manifestly unjust under the circumstances.
