In Buissereth v. Dittrich , Luckner Buissereth sued Timothy Dittrich and Jeanmil Jeanty to recover damages for personal injuries suffered in a car accident.
Buissereth was a passenger in Jeanty's car when it was struck by Dittrich at an intersection where Jeanty had the right of way and Dittrich had a stop sign.
When the Kings County Civil Court denied Jeanty's motion to dismiss the case filed against him, Jeanty appealed to the Appellate Term, Second Department, which reversed.
The AT2 noted that Jeanty succeeded in proving that Dittrich failed to properly observe a state statute -- Vehicle and Traffic Law 1142(a) -- which provides that "[a] driver who fails to yield the right-of-way after stopping at an intersection controlled by a stop sign ... is negligent as a matter of law."
The appellate court didn't give much weight to Buissereth's argument that Jeanty should have seen Dittrich going through the stop sign since, regardless of whether he stopped or not, Dittrich "failed to yield to a vehicle with a right of way."
At least the AT2 went the right way there.
To download a copy of the Appellate Term's decision, please use this link: Buissereth v. Dittrich