Summary
In Bedarf, we first required a competent showing of merit as a prerequisite for leave to amend a complaint to add a cause of action alleging wrongful death: "In our opinion some competent showing that the proposed cause of action has merit should have been made....
Summary of this case from Lucido v. MancusoOpinion
November 17, 1955.
Order granting leave to serve an amended supplemental complaint modified by striking from the order everything following the word "granted" and by substituting in lieu thereof the following: "to the extent that plaintiffs may serve a supplemental complaint substituting the said committee of Gertrude Bedarf as a plaintiff instead of said Gertrude Bedarf; substituting the said administrator of the estate of Joan E. Bedarf as a plaintiff instead of said Joan E. Bedarf; and amending the title of the action in conformance therewith; and denied as to including a cause of action for the alleged wrongful death of said Joan E. Bedarf, without prejudice to a renewal of the application to include such cause of action upon papers which will indicate by competent proof the existence of a causal relationship between the accident in question and the death of said Joan E. Bedarf." As so modified, order affirmed, without costs. In our opinion some competent showing that the proposed cause of action has merit should have been made. It was not demonstrated in the moving papers that such showing could not have been made either from institutional records or otherwise. In the absence of such evidence, the granting of leave to add the cause of action for alleged wrongful death was an improvident exercise of discretion. Nolan, P.J., Wenzel, Beldock, Murphy and Ughetta, JJ., concur.