Federal Judiciary

SHUNNING THE BRONX
By Mark Thompson
markthomp@yahoo.com
Posted 03-12-08

Plaintiffs in personal injury suits often stretch for reasons to file their cases in the plaintiff-friendly environs of the Bronx, while defendants angle for ways to move tort suits elsewhere. Bronx County Justice Kenneth L. Thompson has been caught in the middle of such a tussle more than once. Two of his rulings on change-of-venue motions were reviewed by the Appellate Division in the last year. In one case, Thompson denied the defendant’s motion to ship a slip and fall case to the suburbs, and in the other, he allowed the defendants to move a medical malpractice suit out of the Bronx.  In both cases, Thompson got it wrong, appellate panels said.

In the most recent case, the medical personnel responsible for treating and providing pharmaceuticals to a man who later committed suicide wanted to move the suit filed against them in the Bronx to Westchester County. Thompson didn’t think that was too much of a stretch because the victim lived and died in Westchester County. But the Appellate Division ruled that the suit was properly filed in the Bronx because that’s where the defendants reside. It should remain there because the defendants offered no proof to back up their claim that certain witnesses would be so inconvenienced if the trial were held in the Bronx that they might not be able to testify, the appellate panel concluded. Timan v. Sayegh (March 4)
 

Full post as published by Judicial Reports on March 12, 2008 (boomark / email).