Federal Judiciary

HASTY BRONX JUSTICE
By Mark Thompson
markthomp@yahoo.com
Posted 04-23-08

In two cases last week, the Appellate Division reinstated complaints that were summarily dismissed by Bronx County Justice Betty Owen Stinson, a judge with an apparent propensity for too hastily sending worthy plaintiffs packing. Counting the two latest such cases, Stinson has been reversed 10 times since this time last year for granting defendants’ motions to summarily dismiss complaints.

In one of the most recent such cases, Stinson erred in summarily dismissing a patient’s well-founded complaint against a hospital, the Appellate Division said. The plaintiff sued for a rape allegedly committed by a nurse, whom Stinson concluded had never done anything to put the hospital on notice that he had a propensity for violence. The Appellate Division disagreed, citing the testimony of a nursing aide who had previously reported that the nurse had offered a patient medication in exchange for sex. The aid’s allegation raised a triable issue as to whether the hospital should have done more to protect other patients from the nurse. Though there were questions about the aide’s credibility, those questions can be addressed in a trial, the appellate panel concluded, reinstating the complaint. G.G. v. Yonkers General Hospital (April 17)

Full post as published by Judicial Reports on April 23, 2008 (boomark / email).