Opinion
September 14, 1992
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Nassau County (McCabe, J.).
Ordered that the order is reversed, on the facts, with costs, the motion is denied, the jury verdict is reinstated, and the matter is remitted to the Supreme Court, Nassau County, for a trial on the issue of damages.
This action arises from an accident in which the plaintiff Ellen Moore, a registered nurse, was injured when she tripped over a heating and air conditioning unit in the hallway of a clinic run by the defendant Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York, Inc. (hereinafter HIP). The accident occurred as Moore rushed from the telephone room to answer a telephone call on an emergency telephone on the wall in the area of the nurses' station. Following a trial on the issue of liability, the jury found HIP 70% at fault in the happening of the accident, and Mrs. Moore 30% at fault. The Supreme Court granted HIP's post-trial motion to set aside the jury verdict as against the weight of the evidence, and granted HIP a new trial, finding that Mrs. Moore had not adequately demonstrated that HIP had notice that the placement of the heating and air conditioning unit was dangerous.
The power to set aside a verdict as against the weight of the evidence must be exercised with considerable caution. In the absence of indications that substantial justice has not been done, a successful litigant is entitled to the benefits of a favorable jury verdict. Thus, it has often been stated that a jury verdict should only be set aside if there is no basis upon which the jury could reach it upon any fair interpretation of the evidence (see, Nicastro v Park, 113 A.D.2d 129; see also, Kozlowski v City of Amsterdam, 111 A.D.2d 476; Vaughn-Rees v Connolly, 30 A.D.2d 785, affd 27 N.Y.2d 901; Palermo v Gambitsky, 92 A.D.2d 1005). In this case, the evidence established that HIP either had actual notice of the defect, or had constructive notice of the defect, or had created the defect (see, Gordon v American Museum of Natural History, 67 N.Y.2d 836; Negri v Stop Shop, 65 N.Y.2d 625; Keyes v Jennings Co., 150 A.D.2d 758; Safran v Man-Dell Stores, 106 A.D.2d 560). Thompson, J.P., Harwood, O'Brien and Santucci, JJ., concur.