Scharlack v. Richmond Memorial Hospital

102 A.D.2d 886, 477 N.Y.S.2d 184, 1984 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 19114
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJune 25, 1984
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 102 A.D.2d 886 (Scharlack v. Richmond Memorial Hospital) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scharlack v. Richmond Memorial Hospital, 102 A.D.2d 886, 477 N.Y.S.2d 184, 1984 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 19114 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

— In a medical malpractice action (1) defendant Richmond Memorial Hospital (the hospital) appeals from an order of the Supreme Court, Richmond County (Rubin, J.), dated December 7,1982, which denied its motion for leave to take a further deposition of Helen Scharlack, the mother of the infant plaintiff, as a nonparty witness, and for an order directing her to execute authorizations to obtain copies of the medical records pertaining to herself and her three other children and which granted plaintiff’s motion for a protective order against it, and (2) defendants Leroy Schwartz and John Randall appeal from an order of the same court, dated July 7, 1983, which [887]*887granted plaintiff’s motion for a protective order against them and which denied their cross motion for an order compelling plaintiff to comply with their demand for authorizations to obtain the medical records of plaintiff’s siblings. 11 Ordei dated December 7,1982, modified, by deleting therefrom the provision denying the hospital’s motion and granting plaintiff’s motion in their entirety and substituting therefor a provision denying the hospital’s motion and granting plaintiff’s motion only as to the hospital’s request for the medical records of Susan and William Scharlack pertaining to matters other than their delivery and immediate postnatal care, and otherwise denying plaintiff’s motion and granting the hospital’s motion to the extent indicated herein. As so modified, order affirmed, without costs or disbursements. 11 Order dated July 7, 1983 modified by deleting therefrom the provision granting plaintiff’s motion and denying the cross motion of defendants Schwartz and Randall in their entirety and substituting therefor a provision granting plaintiff’s motion and denying the cross motion only as to the medical records of Susan and William Scharlack pertaining to matters other than their delivery and immediate postnatal care, and otherwise denying plaintiff’s motion and granting the cross motion to the extent indicated herein. As so modified, order affirmed, without costs or disbursements. H Helen Scharlack’s time to execute the authorizations in question is extended until 30 days after service upon her of a copy of the order to be made hereon, with notice of entry. Moreover, Mrs. Scharlack shall submit to a further examination before trial, in accordance herewith, at a time and place to be fixed in a written notice of at least 10 days, to be given by the hospital to her, or at such time and place as the parties may agree. If In the instant medical malpractice action, brought on behalf of the infant plaintiff, Jon Erik Scharlack, by his mother, Helen Scharlack, it is alleged that the negligence of the defendant Richmond Memorial Hospital (the hospital) and doctors, including Doctors Leroy Schwartz and John Randall, in rendering postnatal care to plaintiff resulted in serious and permanent injuries, including severe mental retardation and cerebral palsy. The appeals before us involve an application of the recent opinion of this court in Hughson v St. Francis Hosp. (93 AD2d 491), concerning the situation in which the mother of an infant plaintiff, whose birth defects allegedly resulted from negligent delivery and postnatal care, will be required to provide the defendants in a medical malpractice action with records relating to her own medical history, including prior pregnancies, and the medical histories of the plaintiff’s older siblings, notwithstanding a claim that this information is exempt from disclosure pursuant to the physician-patient privilege (CPLR 4504, subd [a]). In Hughson v St. Francis Hosp. (supra) we establish a safeguard to prevent the plaintiff from manipulating the physician-patient privilege to obtain an unfair advantage at trial, whereby the plaintiff would be precluded from introducing evidence at trial concerning aspects of the mother’s medical history and records which she had refused to reveal during pretrial disclosure proceedings on the ground that such information is protected by the physician-patient privilege. In the instant case, we reject the assertions of the hospital and Doctors Schwartz and Randall that a mother who has brought a medical malpractice action based upon the birth defects of her child may never invoke the physician-patient privilege to limit the disclosure of privileged aspects of her medical history and records, as well as the history and records of her other children. We conclude that defendants may not obtain pretrial disclosure of aspects of the medical history and records of Helen Scharlack and her three other children, Susan, Sandra and William, which are protected by the physician-patient privilege, absent a clear indication that the privilege has been waived, either by the patient or another person authorized to waive the privilege on his behalf. H It must be emphasized that Mrs. Scharlack is named [888]*888as the plaintiff in the instant action only in her capacity as mother and natural guardian of the infant plaintiff, Jon Erik Scharlack, who is the real party in interest (see CPLR 1201; cf. Pardee v Mutual Benefit Life Ins. Co., 238 App Div 294; Donnelly v Donnelly, 29 Mise 2d 469; Arnold v Williams, 17 Mise 2d 953). In this respect, Mrs. Scharlack’s role in the instant litigation is no different than that of the plaintiff’s father in Hughson v St. Francis Hosp. (supra), who brought the action on behalf of his infant daughter. A representative plaintiff like Mrs. Scharlack is not comparable to a party who has brought a personal injury or medical malpractice action on his own behalf and who is, thus, deemed to have waived the physician-patient privilege with respect to his own medical history and records by placing his physical and mental condition directly in issue in the litigation (see Hoenig v Westphal, 52 NY2d 605; Pizzo v Bunora, 89 AD2d 1013; Cynthia B. v New Rochelle Hosp. Med. Center, 86 AD2d 256, 260, affd 60 NY2d 452; Dale v Sherman, 75 AD2d 612). In a manner similar to the plaintiff’s bill of particulars in Hughson v St. Francis Hosp. (supra), the plaintiff’s bill of particulars at bar alleged that the acts of negligence by defendants included their failure to adequately ascertain relevant aspects of the medical history of Mrs. Scharlack and her family and to apply this knowledge in treating Jon Erik after his delivery. Nevertheless, we did not conclude in Hughson v St. Francis Hosp. (supra), that references to the medical history of the infant plaintiff’s mother in the bill of particulars completely precluded her from invoking the physician-patient privilege during pretrial disclosure proceedings. Mrs. Scharlack’s status as a nominal representative plaintiff does not compel a different result at bar. In her capacity as the mother of the infant plaintiff, Mrs. Scharlack can be deemed to have waived the physician-patient privilege only with respect to the medical history and records pertaining to the period when the infant plaintiff was in útero, during which time there could be no severance of the infant’s prenatal history from his mother’s medical history (see Hughson v St. Francis Hosp., 93 AD2d 491, 500, supra; Burgos v Flower & Fifth Ave. Hosp., 108 Mise 2d 225). 11 This does not mean that Mrs. Scharlack could not waive the physician-patient privilege with respect to her own medical history and records and those of her minor or incompetent children by affirmatively indicating her intention to do so. In Hughson v St. Francis Hosp. (supra,

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Bluebook (online)
102 A.D.2d 886, 477 N.Y.S.2d 184, 1984 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 19114, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scharlack-v-richmond-memorial-hospital-nyappdiv-1984.