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OB: Court Rules on Stillborn Death DamagesFrom: art fougner, md (evsono@pipeline.com)Sat Apr 3 11:30:29 2004
Be afraid - be VERY afraid. Court Rules on Stillborn Death Damages Updated: Thursday, Apr. 1, 2004 - 12:26 PM By JOEL STASHENKO Associated Press Writer ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Mothers of stillborn or miscarried babies can seek to recover emotional damages in medical malpractice cases, something that had been prohibited in New York since 1985, the state's highest court said Thursday. The Court of Appeals acknowledged that it was overruling one of its own rulings in reaching the 6-1 decision. Judge Albert Rosenblatt wrote for the majority that the court's decision 19 years ago now fails to "withstand the cold light of logic and experience." That earlier ruling created what Rosenblatt called a "logical gap" in legal precedent. Since 1985, mothers have not been able to get compensation for emotional damages when they miscarried or their babies were stillborn due to malpractice. Yet, in cases where babies were damaged in the womb due to malpractice and born alive, their mothers can seek emotional damages. The 1985 ruling "fits uncomfortably into our tort jurisprudence," Rosenblatt said. Thursday's decision applied to two cases decided as one by the court. Both involved malpractice suits brought against doctors by women who contended their babies died because of medical negligence. Karen Broadnax lost her baby in Yonkers in 1994 and Debra Ann Fahey of Binghamton lost twins in 1999. The midlevel Appellate Division of state Supreme Court dismissed both claims, citing the 1985 Court of Appeals decision. The lone dissenting judge Thursday, Susan Philips Read, said the majority's reasoning is "insufficient" to justify abandonment of a 19-year-old precedent. "There is no way for us to predict or assess the potential effect of this expansion of liability, however modest it may appear, on the cost and availability of gynecological and obstetrical services in New York state," Read wrote. http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=106&sid=185658
-- art fougner, md ich bin ein New Yorker
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