Sone v Qamar
2009 NY Slip Op 09383 [68 AD3d 566]
December 17, 2009
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, February 10, 2010


Marling Sone, Appellant,
v
Cheryl Qamar, Respondent.

[*1] James M. Sheridan, Jr., Garden City, for appellant.

Cullen and Dykman LLP, Brooklyn (Ian T. Williamson of counsel), for respondent.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Paul Wooten, J.), entered November 28, 2008, which granted defendant's motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Defendant satisfied her initial burden of demonstrating, prima facie, that plaintiff did not sustain a serious injury as defined by Insurance Law § 5102 (d). Defendant submitted the affirmed report of a neurologist who found no neurological deficits and noted only a 20-degree limitation on flexion in plaintiff's lumbosacral spine.

Plaintiff failed to meet her consequent burden to provide evidence which raised a triable issue of fact concerning whether she sustained such a serious injury, instead relying on the finding of defendant's doctor. However, the limitation noted by defendant's doctor is not significant within the meaning of Insurance Law § 5102 (d) (see Style v Joseph, 32 AD3d 212, 214 [2006]). Moreover, defendant's doctor opined that it was not causally related to the accident and plaintiff provided nothing which raised a triable issue of fact concerning this element of proof. Accordingly, the court properly granted summary judgment. Concur—Gonzalez, P.J., Mazzarelli, Nardelli, Acosta and RomÁn, JJ. [Prior Case History: 2008 NY Slip Op 33184(U).]