The $200,000 bulge

Eastman v Nash, 2017 NY Slip Op 06523 (2d Dept. 2017)

This is any defense attorney’s nigthmare.  Losing on a bulge under the significant limitation and permanent consequential prong of the no-fault law and getting his for $200,000.00

(1)  “In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, (1) the defendant Clifford C. Nash appeals, and the defendants New York Ambulette Transport, Inc., and David Fiorentino separately appeal, from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Vaughn, J.), entered December 5, 2014, which, upon a jury verdict finding that the plaintiff sustained a serious injury under the permanent consequential limitation of use and significant limitation of use categories of Insurance Law § 5102(d) and that the plaintiff sustained damages in the principal sums of $150,000 for past pain and suffering and $50,000 for future pain and suffering, is in favor of the plaintiff and against them in the principal sum of $200,000, and (2) the defendant Clifford C. Nash appeals, as limited by his brief, from so much of an order of the same court dated June 17, 2015, as denied his motion pursuant to CPLR 4404(a) to set aside the jury verdict on the issue of damages and for judgment as a matter of law, or, in the alternative, to set aside the verdict as contrary to the weight of the evidence and excessive and for a new trial.”

(2) “ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed; and it is further,”

(3) The plaintiff allegedly was injured when a vehicle in which she was a passenger, driven by the defendant David Fiorentino and owned by the defendant New York Ambulette Transport, Inc. (hereinafter together the Ambulette defendants), collided with a vehicle driven by the defendant Clifford C. Nash. At a trial on the issue of damages, the plaintiff presented the testimony of a neurologist, who testified that he measured the range of motion of the plaintiff’s lumbar spine, and found deficits of up to 50%. The plaintiff’s neurologist also reviewed an MRI film of the plaintiff’s lumbar spine taken after the accident, and concluded that it showed no major preexisting conditions. He concluded that the accident caused a disc herniation at L4/5.”

(4)  I have to imagine the demand was near $25,000?  GEICO probably put $10,000 on the case.  When that was rejected, GEICO wanted a “control contract.”  Plaintiff probably said not on your life and  a $200,000 came from the jury’s lips to the Gecko’s ears.

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Legal Update (February 2026): Since this 2017 post, Insurance Law § 5102(d) serious injury threshold standards and CPLR 4404 post-trial motion procedures may have been subject to regulatory amendments or judicial interpretation changes. Additionally, damage award guidelines and pain and suffering valuation standards used in no-fault cases have likely evolved through subsequent appellate decisions. Practitioners should verify current statutory provisions and recent case law developments when evaluating serious injury thresholds and damages calculations.