Opinion
May 12, 1997
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Queens County (LeVine, J.).
Ordered that the order is reversed insofar as appealed from, on the law and as a matter of discretion, with costs, and that branch of the plaintiff's motion which was for leave to serve an amended complaint asserting a cause of action to recover damages for wrongful death against the defendant Sounder Eswar is denied.
A motion for leave to amend a complaint in a medical malpractice action to assert a cause of action for wrongful death must be supported by competent medical proof of a causal connection between the alleged malpractice and the decedent's death (see, Kordonsky v. Andrst, 172 A.D.2d 497; Zuck v. Sierp, 169 A.D.2d 717). In this case, the court improvidently exercised its discretion in granting leave to amend because the conclusory physician's affidavit submitted by the plaintiff did not sufficiently demonstrate the required causal connection (see, Shapiro v. Beer, 121 A.D.2d 528).
Mangano, P.J., Ritter, Sullivan, Altman and McGinity, JJ., concur.