BUS COMPANY’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN THIS TRAFFIC ACCIDENT CASE SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN GRANTED, THE BUS DRIVER SIGNALED TO DEFENDANT DRIVER TO PASS THE BUS AND THE DRIVER EITHER STRUCK THE WHEEL CHAIR LIFT OR THE PLAINTIFF WHO WAS STANDING ON THE LIFT (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined that the bus company’s (Happy Child’s) motion for summary judgment in this traffic accident case should not have been granted. Plaintiff (Jaber) was standing on the bus’s wheel chair lift when the bus driver signaled to defendant driver (Todd) to drive past the bus. Todd stuck either the defendant or the lift:

The Happy Child defendants failed to establish, prima facie, that the bus driver’s alleged action in signaling Todd to maneuver his car through the narrow space between the extended lift—on which Jaber was still standing—and parked cars on the other side of the street did not set into motion an eminently foreseeable chain of events that resulted in Jaber’s injuries … . Accordingly, the Happy Child defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint and all cross claims insofar as asserted against them should have been denied, regardless of the sufficiency of the plaintiffs’ or Todd’s opposing papers … . Jaber v Todd, 2019 NY Slip Op 02690, Second Dept 4-10-19