Adobea v. Junel

In Adobea v. Junel, 114 AD3d 818, 820, 980 N.Y.S.2d 564 [2d Dept 2014], defendant, a taxi, was sued by his passenger when defendant's vehicle was involved in a motor vehicle accident (id. at 818). The accident occurred as defendant's vehicle traveled on a roadway and was impacted by a vehicle attempting to merge into the defendant's lane of travel from a parked position (id. at 819). In granting defendant's motion for summary judgment, the court noted that a parked vehicle suddenly entering the lane of moving traffic which collides with another vehicle violates VTL 1162; such violation constituting negligence as a matter of law (id. at 819-820). The court also reiterated the well-settled principle that "the driver with the right-of-way is entitled to anticipate that the other motorist will obey traffic laws which require him or her to yield" (id. at 819.) Based on the foregoing, the court held that here, the defendants met their prima facie burden of demonstrating their entitlement to judgment as a matter of law. defendant's deposition testimony that the driver of the other vehicle suddenly, without signaling, attempted to merge from the parking lane into the lane in which defendant had been traveling, and that defendant saw that other vehicle only for a second before the impact occurred, established that the other driver violated Vehicle and Traffic Law 1143 and 1162 so that the other driver was negligent as a matter of law (Adobea at 820.)