LEPORE v. Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., et al., Defendants-Respondents. (1999)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Louis York, J., and a jury), entered November 6, 1997, insofar as appealed from as limited by plaintiff's brief, awarding plaintiff $20,000 for past pain and suffering and $0 for future pain and suffering, before apportionment, unanimously modified, on the facts, to vacate the awards for past and future pain and suffering, and to direct a new trial on the issues of such damages only, and otherwise affirmed, without costs, unless defendants-respondents, within 20 days after service upon their attorneys of a copy of this order, stipulate to increase the before-apportionment awards for past pain and suffering to $75,000, and for future pain and suffering to $10,000, and to the entry of an amended judgment in accordance therewith.

The circumstances, which include a trimalleolar fracture of the ankle that involved three surgical procedures, three hospitalizations totaling over a month, confinement to bed or wheelchair for over a month between the first and second hospitalizations, and two years of physical therapy, warrant an increase in the awards for past and future pain and suffering to the extent indicated (CPLR 5501[c] ).

MEMORANDUM DECISION.