Chavoustie v. New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center

Full title: BLANCHE CHAVOUSTIE, Appellant, v. NEW YORK HOSPITAL-CORNELL MEDICAL CENTER…

Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department

Date published: Sep 24, 1998

253 A.D.2d 702 (N.Y. App. Div. 1998)

677 N.Y.S.2d 572

Opinion

September 24, 1998

Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County (Harold Tompkins, J.).

Defendants are entitled to a psychiatric examination of plaintiff (CPLR 3121). Plaintiff, who is in therapy, failed to make a prima facie showing that such an examination poses a serious threat to her health ( compare, Lefkowitz v. Nassau County Med Ctr., 94 A.D.2d 18), or that she lacks the mental capacity to submit ( compare, Flaherty v. Olins Leasing, 91 A.D.2d 970), and her motion was therefore properly denied without a hearing. Plaintiff's resistance to the examination, along with nearly four years of delay for which she is almost entirely responsible, has substantially prejudiced defendants, and the complaint was properly dismissed.

Concur — Sullivan, J. P. Nardelli, Mazzarelli and Andrias, JJ.