LAINO v. LUCCHESE (2006)

In an action to recover damages for personal injuries, the defendants appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Dutchess County (Pagones, J.), dated September 29, 2005, which granted the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability.

ORDERED that the order is affirmed, with costs.

 A driver who fails to yield the right of way after stopping at a stop sign controlling traffic is in violation of Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1142(a) and is negligent as a matter of law (see Odumbo v. Perera, 27 A.D.3d 709, 813 N.Y.S.2d 462;  Friedberg v. Citiwide Auto Leasing, 22 A.D.3d 522, 523, 801 N.Y.S.2d 770;  McNamara v. Fishkowitz, 18 A.D.3d 721, 722, 795 N.Y.S.2d 714;  Nolan v. Mizrahi, 12 A.D.3d 430, 783 N.Y.S.2d 849;  Ishak v. Guzman, 12 A.D.3d 409, 784 N.Y.S.2d 600;  Meretskaya v. Logozzo, 2 A.D.3d 599, 769 N.Y.S.2d 580).   A driver is required to see what is there to be seen (see Bongiovi v. Hoffman, 18 A.D.3d 686, 687, 795 N.Y.S.2d 354;  Bolta v. Lohan, 242 A.D.2d 356, 661 N.Y.S.2d 286), and a driver who has the right of way is entitled to anticipate that the other motorist will obey the traffic law requiring him or her to yield (see Platt v. Wolman, 29 A.D.3d 663, 816 N.Y.S.2d 121;  Dileo v. Barreca, 16 A.D.3d 366, 367-368, 793 N.Y.S.2d 53;   Morgan v. Hachmann, 9 A.D.3d 400, 780 N.Y.S.2d 33).

 The plaintiff established, prima facie, his entitlement to judgment as a matter of law by demonstrating that the defendant driver, who was faced with a stop sign at a “T” intersection, negligently entered the intersection without yielding the right of way, and that this was the sole proximate cause of the accident (see Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1142[a] ).   In opposition, the defendants failed to submit evidence sufficient to raise a triable issue of fact (see Bongiovi v. Hoffman, supra;  Breslin v. Rudden, 291 A.D.2d 471, 472, 738 N.Y.S.2d 674).