Opinion
13556N Index No. 162328/15 Case No. 2020-03730
04-08-2021
Aderonke AYANGBESAN, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Seth FINKELSTEIN, M.D., Defendant-Appellant.
Aaronson Rappaport Feinstein & Deutsch, LLP, New York ( Elliott J. Zucker of counsel), for appellant. Law Office of Thomas Torto, New York ( Thomas Torto of counsel), for respondent.
Aaronson Rappaport Feinstein & Deutsch, LLP, New York ( Elliott J. Zucker of counsel), for appellant.
Law Office of Thomas Torto, New York ( Thomas Torto of counsel), for respondent.
Webber, J.P., Mazzarelli, Gonza´lez, Mendez, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Joan A. Madden, J.), entered March 4, 2020, which denied defendant's motion to sever his statute of limitations defense from plaintiff's medical malpractice claims, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The court providently exercised its discretion in denying defendant's motion for severance. Defendant failed to show that a bifurcated trial would be either a matter of convenience or prevent prejudice so to outweigh the disfavor for severance where, as here, the issues arise from a "common nucleus of facts" ( Sichel v. Community Synagogue, 256 A.D.2d 276, 276, 682 N.Y.S.2d 382 [1st Dept. 1998] ; see CPLR 603 ; Shanley v. Callanan Indus., Inc., 54 N.Y.2d 52, 57, 444 N.Y.S.2d 585, 429 N.E.2d 104 [1981] ).