Shefer v Tepper

Shefer v Tepper 2010 NY Slip Op 03832 [73 AD3d 447] May 6, 2010 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Gal Shefer et al., Respondents,
v
Alex Stewart Tepper, M.D., Appellant, et al., Defendant.

—[*1] Martin Clearwater & Bell LLP, New York (Ellen B. Fishman of counsel), for appellant.

Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Cannavo, P.C., New York (Brian J. Shoot of counsel), for respondents.

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Alison Y. Tuitt, J.), entered November 20, 2008, which, in an action for medical malpractice, insofar as appealed from as limited by the briefs, denied defendant-appellant's motion to compel plaintiff to provide authorizations permitting informal, ex parte interviews with plaintiffs' health care providers, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and the motion granted.

The motion court incorrectly interpreted the Court of Appeals' decision in Arons v Jutkowitz (9 NY3d 393 [2007]) as permitting ex parte interviews of a plaintiff's health care providers by defense counsel only after a note of issue was filed. To the contrary, the Court of Appeals expressly rejected the long-standing practice of proscribing such interviews only after the note of issue was filed, and otherwise made it clear that the preferred time for such disclosure was before the filing of a note of issue (see id. at 410-411). Concur—Gonzalez, P.J., Tom, Sweeny, Freedman and Abdus-Salaam, JJ.