Opinion
12208 Index No. 655306/18 Case No. 2020-02917
10-27-2020
AMERICAN INFERTILITY OF NEW YORK, P.C., etc., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Vitaly A. KUSHNIR, M.D., Defendant-Respondent, Neway Fertility Corp., Defendant.
La Reddola, Lester & Associates, LLP, Garden City (Steven M. Lester of counsel), for appellant. Johnson Liebman, LLP, New York (Charles D. Liebman of counsel), for respondent.
La Reddola, Lester & Associates, LLP, Garden City (Steven M. Lester of counsel), for appellant.
Johnson Liebman, LLP, New York (Charles D. Liebman of counsel), for respondent.
Gische, J.P., Oing, Scarpulla, Mendez, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Melissa A. Crane, J.), entered June 3, 2020, which, insofar as appealed from, denied plaintiff's cross motion to convert defendant Vitaly A. Kushnir's motion to dismiss into a motion for summary judgment and upon doing so for partial summary judgment in plaintiff's favor, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The court providently exercised its discretion in denying plaintiff's cross motion to convert defendant Kushnir's motion to dismiss into a summary judgment motion. While defendant's submission was significant, it hardly laid bare his proof since the only affidavit provided as part of the submission was his own, and it was not extensive (cf. Herlihy v. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 214 A.D.2d 250, 255, 633 N.Y.S.2d 106 [1st Dept. 1995] ; Capital Wireless Corp. v. Deloitte & Touche, 216 A.D.2d 663, 665–666, 627 N.Y.S.2d 794 [3d Dept. 1995] ). This is a fact-intensive case where the parties accuse one another of duplicity with respect to the administration of the malpractice policy. The parties contest the terms of defendant's job offer and whether the malpractice insurance was understood as a fringe benefit. No depositions were conducted. The so-ordered stipulation plaintiff claims that the parties agreed upon in order to enable the completion of discovery references the deposition of a single witness and says nothing about completing discovery. Thus, this is not a case "where both sides deliberately lay bare their proof" and make clear that they were "charting a summary judgment course" ( Shah v. Shah, 215 A.D.2d 287, 289, 626 N.Y.S.2d 786 [1st Dept. 1985] ).