Savino v. Zucker
| Decision Date | 28 January 2021 |
| Docket Number | 530585 |
| Citation | 190 A.D.3d 1243,140 N.Y.S.3d 326 |
| Parties | In the Matter of Thomas SAVINO, Petitioner, v. Howard A. ZUCKER, as Commissioner of Health, Respondent. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
Jacobson Goldberg & Kulb, LLP, Garden City (Jeffrey A. Granat of counsel), for petitioner.
Letitia James, Attorney General, New York City (Erin R. McAlister of counsel), for respondent.
Before: Lynch, J.P., Clark, Mulvey, Pritzker and Colangelo, JJ.
Proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78 () to review a determination of the Administrative Review Board for Professional Medical Conduct revoking petitioner's license to practice medicine in New York.
In 2018, petitioner – a physician formerly licensed to practice medicine in New York – was convicted of various federal crimes stemming from his acceptance of cash bribes in exchange for referring the blood specimens of his patients to a certain laboratory services company. Petitioner was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison and ordered to pay fines totaling $100,000, as well as forfeit the proceeds of his crimes. The Bureau of Professional Medical Conduct thereafter commenced an expedited referral proceeding against petitioner, charging him with professional misconduct based upon his convictions (see Education Law § 6530[9][a][ii] ; Public Health Law § 230[10][p] ). As a penalty for his conduct, a Hearing Committee of the State Board for Professional Medical Conduct revoked petitioner's medical license. Petitioner appealed to the Administrative Review Board for Professional Medical Conduct (hereinafter ARB), and the ARB, which was operating with only four members at the time,1 affirmed. Petitioner then commenced this CPLR article 78 proceeding to challenge the penalty imposed upon him.
Where, as here, this Court is asked to review the penalty determination of the ARB, we apply a "highly deferential" standard of review ( Matter of Nisi v. New York State Dept. of Health, 70 A.D.3d 1211, 1214, 894 N.Y.S.2d 245 [2010] ; see Matter of Elbaz v. New York State Dept. of Health, 156 A.D.3d 972, 973, 66 N.Y.S.3d 87 [2017] ). Indeed, this Court will not disturb a penalty imposed by the ARB unless it is so disproportionate to the offense as to be shocking to one's sense of fairness (see Matter of Elbaz v. New York State Dept. of Health, 156 A.D.3d at 973, 66 N.Y.S.3d 87 ; Matter of Poulose v. Shah, 96 A.D.3d 1205, 1207, 946 N.Y.S.2d 695 [2012], appeal dismissed 19 N.Y.3d 1015, 951 N.Y.S.2d 710, 976 N.E.2d 238 [2012] ). We cannot reach that conclusion here.
As recognized by the Hearing Committee, petitioner failed to acknowledge any wrongdoing or accept responsibility for his actions and thereby demonstrated a lack of insight into the harm caused by those actions. Given the seriousness of petitioner's offenses and his failure to accept responsibility for his actions, we cannot say that the revocation of petitioner's medical license was so disproportionate to the offense as to shock one's sense of fairness (see Matter of Ogundu v. State of N.Y. Dept. of Health, State Bd. for Professional Med. Conduct, 188 A.D.3d 1469, 1471, 135 N.Y.S.3d 527 [2020] ; Matter of Celestin v. Novello, 43 A.D.3d 545, 546, 840 N.Y.S.2d 475 [2007] ). Contrary to petitioner's contention, the fact that other physicians convicted of similar crimes may have received a lesser penalty than license revocation is of no moment, as "each case must be judged on its own peculiar facts and circumstances" ( Matter of Bezar v. De Buono, 240 A.D.2d 978, 979, 659 N.Y.S.2d 547 [1997] ; see Matter of Singh v. New York State Dept. of Health Bd. of Professional Med. Conduct, 74 A.D.3d 1391, 1394, 903 N.Y.S.2d 181 [2010] ). Further, although the record reflects that some members of the ARB were in favor of reducing...
To continue reading
Request your trial