Summary Judgment Victory: Jonathan Weinstein and Ziwei “Lillian” Wang Obtained Defense Win in Rockland County
VLMM is pleased to announce that partner, Jonathan Weinstein, and associate, Ziwei “Lillian” Wang, obtained summary judgment for our four physician clients in a medical malpractice action in Rockland County Supreme Court.
Plaintiff alleged that our clients, two emergency department physicians and two pediatricians, failed to prevent, diagnose, and treat an infant’s herpes infection, purportedly transmitted during delivery, resulting in the infant’s death.
We filed a summary judgment motion on behalf of our clients with expert opinion supporting that there was no deviation from the standards of care, since our ED physician clients performed appropriate testing and treatment based on the medical history, and our pediatrician clients appropriately monitored the condition and responded to any developments during admission. Furthermore, our expert concluded in support of summary judgment that our clients’ treatment bore no causal relationship to any of plaintiff’s alleged injuries.
Following the filing of our motion, plaintiff’s counsel voluntarily withdrew all causes of action against our pediatrician clients and contended that the subsequent treatment records suggested that our ED physician clients failed to take a proper medical history. In reply, we argued that plaintiff may not rely on any subsequent records to establish a deviation and must only evaluate the medical history taken by our clients in the context of the information available to them at the time.
The Court’s decision granted our motion for summary judgment as to all four physician clients, finding that plaintiff failed to rebut our clients’ prima facie showing of entitlement to summary judgment on both standard of care and causation. In rendering its decision, the Court agreed with our argument that plaintiff’s argument as to the medical history improperly relied on hindsight, and that plaintiff could not raise an issue of fact as to causation.