Dupée & Monroe Scores Big Win for Car Crash Victim

Attorneys at Dupée & Monroe, P.C., recently won a huge victory on behalf of our client, who was injured in a severe car accident. The New York trial court granted our client’s motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability. The case will now proceed only on the grounds of damages to determine how much our client will recover as a result of their injuries. Continue reading for information about the case, and contact our seasoned Goshen car accident attorneys if you or a loved one has been injured by a negligent driver in New York City or the Hudson Valley.

Defendant failed to yield, caused a crash

The case concerned a car crash that occurred on Route 17M. Our client was safely driving her vehicle along the road when she suddenly collided with the car driven by the defendant. On behalf of our client, Dupée & Monroe alleged that the defendant had stopped at a stop sign and then made a left-hand turn without yielding the right-of-way to the plaintiff. The defendant’s failure to yield caused the defendant and plaintiff to collide, injuring our client.

On behalf of our client, attorneys at Dupée & Monroe argued that the defendant’s actions violated New York’s Vehicle and Traffic Law (“VTL”). Pursuant to VTL section 1142(a), the defendant was required to yield the right-of-way to our client. The court agreed with our assessment: A driver who proceeds into an intersection controlled by a stop sign and fails to yield the right-of-way to an oncoming vehicle violates VTL 1142(a). Such a violation constitutes negligence as a matter of law, regardless of whether the defendant stopped at the stop sign. Any driver who stops at a stop sign knows that another driver may be following the proper rules and may enter the intersection, and if they fail to yield properly, they are negligent.

Moreover, we successfully argued that the failure to yield caused the accident. According to New York case law, when a driver fails to yield after stopping at a stop sign, not only are they negligent, but any resulting accident is the proximate cause of that failure to yield (and a violation of New York’s traffic safety laws). Because we established the defendant’s negligence and causation as a matter of law , our client was entitled to judgment as a matter of law unless the defendant could come up with a reasonable rebuttal. The defendant failed to do so, and, as a result, the court granted our client’s motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability.

The case will proceed to determine how much our client is owed in compensation for the harm she has suffered.

Dedicated and Successful New York Personal Injury Attorneys

If you or someone you love has been injured by someone else’s negligence in New York, find out whether you’re owed money for your accident-related costs by contacting the talented, compassionate, and effective Goshen and Manhattan personal injury lawyers at Dupée & Monroe for a free consultation at 845-294-8900.