Carmona v. Mathisson
| Decision Date | 25 September 2008 |
| Docket Number | No. 25879/03,No. 4122.,4122.,25879/03 |
| Citation | 865 N.Y.S.2d 35,54 A.D.3d 633,2008 NY Slip Op 7070 |
| Parties | JUANITA CARMONA et al., Respondents, v. KEVIN ROSS MATHISSON, M.D., et al., Respondents, and ALCON LABORATORIES INC. et al., Appellants, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
This action seeks damages for injuries allegedly sustained by plaintiff Juanita Carmona during cataract surgery. The surgery was performed by defendant Mathisson at defendant Montefiore Medical Center, using an Alcon Series 20000 Legacy phacoemulsification machine manufactured by defendant Alcon.
On Alcon's motion for summary judgment, the court granted dismissal only as to causes of action for negligence for failure to warn and for breach of warranty. With respect to the claims alleging strict products liability and negligence based on manufacturing and design defects, Alcon submitted the affidavit of an engineer with expertise in the manufacture and design of the Alcon STTL and phacoemulsification devices and technology in general. This expert opined that the product was not defectively designed or manufactured, and that a product defect did not cause the patient's injuries, positing other possible causes related to human error. This opinion was neither speculative nor conclusory, as it was based on the internal safety features of the USDA approved device, the failure to find a defect upon inspection, the fact that no similar defect had ever been reported, and a study finding that phacoemulsification complications often resulted from surgical technique. After this expert vouched for the product's compliance with design and manufacturing standards in the industry and posited other possible causes of the injury, respondents failed to exclude all alternative causes for the injury in response (see Ramos v Howard Indus., Inc., 10 NY3d 218, 224 [2008]).
All other substantive claims having been rejected, the derivative claim for loss of...
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Delgado v. City of N.Y.
...in the cataract surgeryperformed on the plaintiff, finding no evidence of defective design or manufacture (see Carmona v. Mathisson, 54 A.D.3d 633, 865 N.Y.S.2d 35 [1st Dept.2008]). Yet, "the trial court permitted defendants to elicit testimony that the Alcon machine malfunctioned or contai......
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Carmona v. Mathisson
...the manufacturer of the machine, dismissing plaintiff's claims for strict liability and negligent design and manufacture (54 A.D.3d 633, 865 N.Y.S.2d 35 [2008] ) ( Carmona I ). In so ruling, we found that Alcon sustained its prima facie burden on the motion by submitting an affidavit from i......
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Leone v. Bj's Wholesale Club Inc.
...case's condensation evaporation pans had twice the capacity prescribed by the applicable industry standard ( see Carmona v. Mathisson, 54 A.D.3d 633, 865 N.Y.S.2d 35 [2008] ). The expert affidavit that defendant BJ's offered in opposition failed to raise a triable issue of fact, since the e......
- People v. Kerins, 4121.