Weiner v. Lenox Hill Hosp.

• Decision Date: 19 November 1996
• Citation: 650 N.Y.S.2d 629,673 N.E.2d 914,88 N.Y.2d 784
• Parties: , 673 N.E.2d 914, 65 USLW 2472 David WEINER, Individually and as Administrator of the Estate of Dale J. Korn, Deceased, Respondent, v. LENOX HILL HOSPITAL, Appellant, et al., Defendant.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

Page 629

650 N.Y.S.2d 629

88 N.Y.2d 784, 673 N.E.2d 914, 65 USLW 2472

David WEINER, Individually and as Administrator of the Estate of Dale J. Korn, Deceased, Respondent, v. LENOX HILL HOSPITAL, Appellant, et al., Defendant.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Nov. 19, 1996.

Aaronson Rappaport, Feinstein & Deutsch, L.L.P., New York City (Steven C. Mandell, of counsel), for appellant.

Melito & Adolfsen P.C., New York City (Ignatius John Melito and Jodi A. Catalano, of counsel), and Barton & Zasky, for respondent.

OPINION OF THE COURT

CIPARICK, Judge.

The issue on appeal is whether plaintiff's complaint against a hospital, alleging that the hospital failed to properly safeguard its blood supply from HIV contamination, sounds in medical malpractice or negligence for purposes of selecting the applicable Statute of Limitations. Because the challenged conduct was not linked to the medical treatment of a particular patient, we conclude that the claim sounds in negligence and that plaintiff's complaint is therefore timely.

As alleged in plaintiff's complaint and amplified in a bill of particulars, Dale J. Korn was a patient at Lenox Hill Hospital (Hospital) from October 1984 through January 1985 for treatment of a small bowel obstruction. During the course of treatment, the Hospital administered numerous blood transfusions to Korn. The Hospital obtained eight units of blood used in the transfusions from its own blood bank and seven units from New York Blood Center. At least one of the blood units administered to Korn was contaminated with the HIV virus. In May 1990, Korn was diagnosed with AIDS, and she died of AIDS-related illnesses on June 20, 1990.

In March 1991, plaintiff, as administrator of Korn's estate, commenced this negligence action against the Hospital and New York Blood Center. Plaintiff alleged that the Hospital was negligent in failing to adequately screen and test the blood used in the transfusions. In its answer to plaintiff's complaint, the Hospital pleaded as an affirmative defense that plaintiff's claim was time barred under CPLR 214-a, the 2 1/2-year medical malpractice Statute of Limitations. Plaintiff thereafter moved to strike the Statute of Limitations defense, and the Hospital cross-moved to dismiss the complaint as untimely.

Supreme Court granted plaintiff's motion to strike the Statute of Limitations defense and denied the Hospital's motion to dismiss the complaint, holding that plaintiff's complaint is timely. The court reasoned that plaintiff's claim sounds in negligence, not medical malpractice, and is governed by the 3-year limitations period of CPLR 214, which accrued upon Korn's discovery of her HIV-positive status (see, CPLR 214-c). The Appellate Division affirmed for the reasons stated by Supreme Court, and certified the following question to this Court: "Was the order of the Supreme Court, New York County, as affirmed by this Court, properly made?" For the reasons that follow, we answer the certified question in the affirmative.

To determine which Statute of Limitations governs plaintiff's claim against the Hospital, we must decide whether the claim sounds in medical malpractice or negligence. The Hospital contends that plaintiff's claim sounds in medical malpractice, governed by the 2 1/2-year limitations period of CPLR 214-a, and that the claim accrued under the common-law accrual rule at the time of injury (see, Schwartz v. Heyden Newport Chem. Corp., 12 N.Y.2d 212, 216-218, 237 N.Y.S.2d 714, 188 N.E.2d 142, cert. denied 374 U.S. 808, 83 S.Ct. 1697, 10 L.Ed.2d 1032; see also, CPLR 214-c[5] ). Therefore, according to the Hospital, plaintiff's claim accrued no later than the last blood transfusion administered in January 1985 and expired no later than July 1987, rendering the March 1991 complaint untimely. In response, plaintiff counters that the complaint sounds in negligence, governed by the 3-year limitations period of CPLR 214. Moreover, plaintiff contends that because the injury was "caused by the latent effects of exposure to any substance," namely HIV, the claim accrued upon discovery of the injury (see, CPLR 214-c[2] ). According to plaintiff, therefore, the complaint--filed within one year of Korn's discovery of her HIV-positive status--is timely. ¹

In analyzing the issue on appeal, we initially note that the distinction between medical malpractice and negligence is a subtle one, for medical malpractice is but a species of negligence and "no rigid analytical line separates the two" (Scott v. Uljanov, 74 N.Y.2d 673, 674, 543 N.Y.S.2d 369, 541 N.E.2d 398). Nevertheless, this Court has recognized that although a "hospital in a general sense is always furnishing medical care to patients * * * not every act of negligence toward a patient would be medical malpractice" (Bleiler v. Bodnar, 65 N.Y.2d 65, 73, 489 N.Y.S.2d 885, 479 N.E.2d 230). Thus, a claim sounds in medical malpractice when the challenged conduct "constitutes medical treatment or bears a substantial relationship to the rendition of medical treatment by a licensed physician" (id. at 72, 489 N.Y.S.2d 885, 479 N.E.2d 230). By contrast, when "the gravamen of the complaint is not negligence in furnishing medical treatment to a patient, but the hospital's failure in fulfilling a different duty," the claim sounds in negligence (id. at 73, 489 N.Y.S.2d 885, 479 N.E.2d 230; see, Scott v. Uljanov, supra, 74 N.Y.2d at 675, 543 N.Y.S.2d 369, 541 N.E.2d 398).

Based on these principles, we agree with the courts below that the complaint in this case sounds in negligence, not medical malpractice. Plaintiff's complaint essentially challenges the Hospital's "failure to adopt and prescribe proper procedures and regulations" for the collection of blood, a type of claim that we have recognized as sounding in negligence (see, Bleiler...