After a three day trial in Supreme Court, New York County, Wade Clark Mulcahy’s Michael Bono and Dana Purcaro obtain a rare defense verdict on liability in a hit in the rear accident case in Smyth v. Murphy, Index number 157795/2013.

Plaintiff testified to being involved in at least ten on the job accidents spanning over two decades. In each accident, plaintiff injured his cervical and lumbar spine and received medical treatment for those injuries, often filing related lawsuits.

Defendant Murphy testified that on the date of the accident, she tapped Smyth’s sanitation vehicle in the rear while he was stopped at a yellow light on the West Side highway during light snowfall. There was one scratch on Mrs. Murphy’s vehicle and no evidence of any damage to plaintiff’s vehicle. Despite the light impact, plaintiff called an ambulance and was taken to the hospital for treatment of his long standing cervical and lumbar spine injuries.  Sometime later, plaintiff underwent cervical and lumbar surgeries by Dr. Lattuga.

During the trial, the defense raised a number of credibility issues, including the apparent failure of plaintiff to inform his physicians about the number of prior accidents he had been involved in, including multiple accidents close in time to the 2013 accident at issue.  In addition, the defense presented proof that a prior MRI scan was the same as a scan taken shortly after this accident.  After brief deliberations, the jury returned a  verdict in favor of the defendants.  Please write to Mike Bono if you have any questions or wish to discuss this case further.