SKETCHES OF COURT: Determination of negligence made in collision case
In this courtroom sketch, Hon. Lisa Ottley listens as plaintiff’s attorney Carmen Jack Giordano (standing) of the Giordano Law Firm summarizes his arguments for the jury in the pedestrian-vehicle accident trial Grier v. Sephardic Home for the Aged. At issue was the determination of liability.
The semi-retired Dolphus Grier was leaving his part-time chef’s job in a nursing home at the end of his workday on Cropsey Avenue in Gravesend. Across the way, the director of the Sephardic Home for the Aged was at the end of his workday. Grier was crossing the avenue on foot, as Arthur New was exiting in the company car from the driveway. New executed the same left turn he did every day at the same time, crossing the marked median dividing opposing lanes of traffic. On that April day in 2012, however, New hit Grier. New was represented by William Fitzgerald (at left) of the law firm DeCicco, Gibbon & McNamara.
The collision happened in the median, about 15 feet away from a crosswalk at 23rd Avenue. The attorneys sought to impugn the other’s client as either failing in their duty of care or in an obligation if any to yield to traffic in a safe zone.
Brooklyn Boro
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