| Berger v New York City Hous. Auth. |
| 2011 NY Slip Op 01890 [82 AD3d 531] |
| March 15, 2011 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. |
| Theodore Berger, Respondent, v New York City Housing Authority et al., Defendants, and Paul R. Anderson et al., Appellants. |
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Law Offices of Thomas K. Moore, White Plains (Neil Dinces of counsel), for Rosen appellants.
Burns & Harris, New York (Christopher J. Donadio of counsel), for respondent.
Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Robert E. Torres, J.), entered April 7, 2010, which, in an action for personal injuries sustained in a multi-vehicle accident, denied defendants-appellants' motions for summary judgment dismissing the complaint and all cross claims as against them, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
It is well established that evidence of a rear-end collision with a stopped vehicle constitutes a prima facie case of negligence on the part of the operator of the moving vehicle (see De La Cruz v Ock Wee Leong, 16 AD3d 199 [2005]), which may be rebutted by evidence that the vehicle in front stopped suddenly (see Barry v City of New York, 283 AD2d 300 [2001]). Here, the motion court properly determined that issues of fact exist concerning whether the first three vehicles in this five-car accident, including appellants' cars, stopped suddenly and their reasons for doing so. Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Sweeny, DeGrasse, Freedman and Abdus-Salaam, JJ.