Drisdom v. Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center

• Decision Date: 11 July 2008
• Docket Number: No. 784 CA 07-02582,784 CA 07-02582
• Citation: 2008 NY Slip Op 6265,53 A.D.3d 1142,861 N.Y.S.2d 919
• Parties: JONNA J. DRISDOM, as Administrator of the Estate of JONAH R. DRISDOM, Deceased, Respondent-Appellant, v. NIAGARA FALLS MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER et al., Appellants-Respondents.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

53 A.D.3d 1142

861 N.Y.S.2d 919

2008 NY Slip Op 6265

JONNA J. DRISDOM, as Administrator of the Estate of JONAH R. DRISDOM, Deceased, Respondent-Appellant, v. NIAGARA FALLS MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER et al., Appellants-Respondents.

No. 784 CA 07-02582

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Fourth Department.

Decided July 11, 2008.

Appeals and cross appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Niagara County (Frank Caruso, J.), entered April 10, 2007 in an action for, inter alia, wrongful death. The order, among other things, denied the motions of defendants Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, Niagara Emergency Physicians Group, P.C. and Dr. Leonard Franco for summary judgment and denied plaintiff's cross motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability.

It is hereby ordered that the order so appealed from is unanimously modified on the law by granting that part of the motion of defendants Niagara Emergency Physicians Group, P.C. and Dr. Leonard Franco for summary judgment dismissing the first cause of action to the extent that it alleges that defendant Niagara Emergency Physicians Group, P.C. was negligent in failing to properly interview, hire, train, supervise, and monitor its employees, including defendant Dr. Leonard Franco, and dismissing that cause of action to that extent, and by denying that part of the cross motion of defendants City of Niagara Falls Police Department, City of Niagara Falls, and Walter R. Nichols, Jr. for summary judgment dismissing the claims for punitive damages against defendant Walter R. Nichols, Jr. and reinstating those claims against him and as modified the order is affirmed without costs.

Memorandum:

Plaintiff, as administrator of the estate of Jonah R. Drisdom (decedent), commenced this action seeking damages for the wrongful death of decedent and compensatory and punitive damages for the alleged violation of decedent's civil rights pursuant to 42 USC § 1983. As plaintiff correctly concedes, "the State and its political subdivisions are not subject to punitive damages" (Clark-Fitzpatrick, Inc. v Long Is. R.R. Co., 70 NY2d 382, 386 [1987]; see generally Sharapata v Town of Islip, 56 NY2d 332, 338-339 [1982]), and thus Supreme Court properly granted those parts of the cross motion of defendants City of Niagara Falls Police Department (Department), City of Niagara Falls (City), and Walter R. Nichols, Jr. (collectively, City defendants) for summary judgment dismissing the claims for punitive damages against the Department and the City. The court erred, however, in granting that part of the cross motion for summary judgment dismissing the claims for punitive damages against Nichols because "[t]he immunity of a municipality from punitive damages does not extend to individual police officers" (Staudacher v City of Buffalo, 155 AD2d 956, 956 [1989]; see Carney v City of Utica, 148 AD2d 927 [1989]), and we therefore modify the order accordingly.

We agree with defendants Niagara Emergency Physicians Group, P.C. (NEPG) and Dr. Leonard Franco that the court erred in denying that part...