Opinion
10-06-2015
Lorraine MUTH, etc., Plaintiff–Respondent, v. WALI MOHAMMAD, M.D., P.C., et al., Defendants, Howard M. Rombom, PhD, P.C., Defendant–Appellant.
Martin Clearwater & Bell LLP, New York (Iryna S. Krauchanka, Jeffrey A. Shor and Ryan M. Donihue of counsel), for appellant. Kramer & Dunleavy, LLP, New York (Lenore Kramer of counsel), for respondent.
Martin Clearwater & Bell LLP, New York (Iryna S. Krauchanka, Jeffrey A. Shor and Ryan M. Donihue of counsel), for appellant.
Kramer & Dunleavy, LLP, New York (Lenore Kramer of counsel), for respondent.
Opinion Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Stanley Green, J.), entered September 22, 2014, which denied the motion of defendant Howard M. Rombom, PhD, P.C. (Rombom P.C.) for summary judgment dismissing the complaint as against it, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and the motion granted. The Clerk is directed to enter judgment accordingly.
Rombom P.C.'s staff psychologist, nonparty Nicholas Radcliffe, Ph.D., examined and evaluated plaintiff's decedent on three separate occasions in January 2008, for a Workers' Compensation examination and evaluation. Decedent was seeking an evaluation linking his depressive disorder to an injury he had sustained six years earlier, in order to have benefits reinstated. On February 22, 2008, three weeks after his last visit to Dr. Radcliffe, decedent committed suicide by shooting himself with a shotgun.
Although a psychologist-patient relationship existed between decedent and Dr. Radcliffe (see e.g. Bazakos v. Lewis, 12 N.Y.3d 631, 634, 883 N.Y.S.2d 785, 911 N.E.2d 847 [2009] ; Lee v. City of New York, 162 A.D.2d 34, 36, 560 N.Y.S.2d 700 [1st Dept.1990], lv. denied 78 N.Y.2d 863, 578 N.Y.S.2d 878, 586 N.E.2d 61 [1991] ), Ronbom P.C. is not liable to plaintiff, since Dr. Radcliffe exercised his professional medical judgment in his examination and evaluation of decedent, including his determination whether to inquire about decedent's access to firearms (see Park v. Kovachevich, 116 A.D.3d 182, 190–191, 982 N.Y.S.2d 75 [1st Dept.2014], lv. denied 23 N.Y.3d 906, 2014 WL 2609626 [2014] ; see also Schrempf v. State of New York, 66 N.Y.2d 289, 295, 496 N.Y.S.2d 973, 487 N.E.2d 883 [1985] ). Furthermore, the choices Dr. Radcliffe made were not a proximate cause of decedent's suicide, an event which occurred three weeks after he last visited with Radcliffe (see Eckman v. Cipolla, 77 A.D.3d 704, 910 N.Y.S.2d 446 [2d Dept.2010] ).
MAZZARELLI, J.P., RENWICK, MANZANET–DANIELS, GISCHE, JJ., concur.