Zavaglia v. Sarah Neuman Center for Healthcare & Rehabilitation

25 Misc. 3d 590
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 29, 2009
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 25 Misc. 3d 590 (Zavaglia v. Sarah Neuman Center for Healthcare & Rehabilitation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Zavaglia v. Sarah Neuman Center for Healthcare & Rehabilitation, 25 Misc. 3d 590 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 2009).

Opinion

[591]*591OPINION OF THE COURT

Alan D. Scheinkman, J.

It is ordered that this motion is decided as follows.

This is an action predicated upon injuries allegedly sustained by plaintiff Salvatore Zavaglia as a consequence of a fall in a nursing home. Plaintiffs assert that the fall was caused by defendants’ breach of federal and state regulations and that plaintiff Salvatore Zavaglia sustained a fractured hip, which led to an open reduction and internal fixation of the hip, two subsequent hip replacements, and three hospitalizations.

One day after plaintiffs served and filed their note of issue and certificate of readiness, plaintiffs served a supplemental bill of particulars to update their claim of special damages (CPLR 3043 [b]). In the supplemental bill of particulars, plaintiffs inserted, for the first time, a claim for past and future home care services which have/will be provided by plaintiff Angela Zavaglia, the spouse of the injured party, plaintiff Salvatore Zavaglia. Plaintiffs seek recovery of $259,200 for past home care services for three years as well as future home care services calculated on the basis of $156 per day. At her deposition, plaintiff Angela Zavaglia testified she helps her husband go to the bathroom, change his diaper, take a shower, get dressed, and eat. She testified that the only one of these activities that her husband can undertake on his own is shaving and that her husband is not able to dress himself entirely on his own. In his affirmation on this motion, plaintiffs’ counsel, without citation to any documents or testimony, asserts that plaintiff wife undertakes dressing changes, provision of medications, and physical assistance with all activities of daily living, including ambulation, bathing, dressing, toileting and personal hygiene.

Defendants bring this motion, asserting that plaintiff wife may not, as part of her derivative action, recover for gratuitous care she provides to her husband. Defendants also assert that they should be afforded the opportunity to conduct a further deposition of plaintiff wife, though they do not explain why they need a further deposition. In opposition, plaintiffs argue that the reasonable value of the nursing services rendered to a husband by his wife is recoverable in the derivative claim since the responsibilities undertaken by plaintiff wife as a result of defendants’ alleged negligence involve nursing and home care tasks for which she is obligated to pay or supply to her husband and thus are compensable as a loss entirely separate from the [592]*592loss of consortium aspect of the action. Further, plaintiffs contend that the plaintiff wife was already deposed regarding the home care services she provides to her husband. According to plaintiffs, defense counsel had every opportunity to ask questions of plaintiff wife and defendants’ failure to use their opportunity to the fullest does not warrant giving them another deposition. In reply, defendants argue that the home health care services claim belongs to plaintiff husband, not to plaintiff wife, and plaintiff wife provides home health care services to her husband of her own free will and did not incur any expenses in doing so.

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Related

Dockery v. United States
663 F. Supp. 2d 111 (N.D. New York, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
25 Misc. 3d 590, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zavaglia-v-sarah-neuman-center-for-healthcare-rehabilitation-nysupct-2009.