State v. Swezey
| Decision Date | 19 November 2014 |
| Docket Number | 2013-07137 |
| Citation | 122 A.D.3d 829,2014 N.Y. Slip Op. 08003,996 N.Y.S.2d 684 |
| Parties | STATE of New York, respondent, v. Andrew SWEZEY, appellant. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
Andrew M. Schnier, New York, N.Y., for appellant.
Eric T. Schneiderman, Attorney General, New York, N.Y. (Steven C. Wu, Michael S. Belohlavek, and David Lawrence III of counsel), for respondent.
WILLIAM F. MASTRO, J.P., PETER B. SKELOS, SHERI S. ROMAN, and JOSEPH J. MALTESE, JJ.
In an action to recover payment for medical services rendered, the defendant appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (Spinner, J.), dated April 29, 2013, which granted the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on the complaint.
ORDERED that the order is reversed, on the law, with costs, and the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on the complaint is denied.
In this action to recover payment for medical services allegedly provided to the defendant during his hospitalization at University Hospital, State University of New York at Stony Brook (hereinafter the hospital), the plaintiff served a brief complaint generally alleging that certain unspecified services were provided, that those services were reasonable, necessary, and proper under the circumstances, that the total cost of those services was $85,354.48, that the plaintiff billed the defendant for the services, and that the defendant failed and refused to make payment. In his verified answer, the defendant specifically denied the allegations that the services were reasonable, necessary, and proper, that their total cost was $85,354.48, and that he had been billed for the services and had refused to pay for them.
The plaintiff then moved for summary judgment on the complaint, submitting an affirmation of its attorney, a redacted hospital billing statement which omitted any mention of the actual medical services rendered and treatment provided to the defendant, and an affirmation of the hospital's Patient Accounts Manager asserting that the redacted statement constituted a “true and complete cop[y]” of the original, and that “[a]ll normal procedures to bill this account were properly undertaken.” The defendant opposed the motion with his own affidavit in which he reiterated his denial of the material allegations in the complaint and argued that the plaintiff's submissions on the motion failed to demonstrate its prima facie entitlement to summary judgment. The Supreme Court granted the motion.
The plaintiff failed to establish its prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law, since the affirmation of its counsel, who lacked personal knowledge of the facts, and the redacted...
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