Reno v. D'Javid
| Decision Date | 06 October 1977 |
| Citation | 42 N.Y.2d 1040,399 N.Y.S.2d 210,369 N.E.2d 766 |
| Parties | , 369 N.E.2d 766 Margaret J. RENO, Appellant, v. Ismail F. D'Javid, Respondent. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Juris G. Cederbaums, Gino E. Gallina and Eric J. Weiss, New York City, for appellant.
Richard A. Young, Peter C. Kopff, New York City and Stephen J. Pribula, Mineola, for respondent.
Order affirmed, without costs, on the memorandum at the Appellate Division, 55 A.D.2d 876, 390 N.Y.S.2d 421. In response to the dissenting opinion only one comment is necessary. The more grievous violation at issue is not that of the statute prohibiting abortions, itself the object of a changing legislative view, but of the paramount public policy imperative that the law, whatever its content at a given time or for however limited a period, be obeyed.
I would reverse the order appealed from and reinstate Special Term's order denying defendant's CPLR 3212 motion to dismiss.
It is unnecessary, it seems to me, to reach the question of the applicability of the absolutist doctrine on which the majori relies in this case. No one can disagree with it as a matter of general principle.
The statute legalizing abortion in New York was enacted on April 11, 1970 effective as of July 1 of that year. The abortion here was performed on the plaintiff, an unmarried young woman, by the defendant physician on the intervening June 6. Assuming that the changing legislative view had not yet marked a shift in public policy as of that date and that, in any event, it did not serve to undermine the general requirement that the law be obeyed, the issue still remains as to whether there was post -aborti negligence in the nature of abandonment and whether that, rather than the abortion itself, was the proximate cause of the condition which brought the plaintiff to the threshold of death and the need for surgical removal of her reproductive organs.
The motion papers show that the plaintiff's uterus had been perforated by the defendant. Since the perforation occurred during the abortion, the defendant may be insulated from civil liability to the plaintiff for that conduct. However, as the actor, it may be inferred that he knew it had happened and it could also be found that he was aware of the copious bleeding that ensued. To have terminated his care at that point, without any provision at all for further and immediate medical attention, could be found to constitute tortious conduct...
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