If a doctor performing an independent medical examination pursuant to CPLR 3121 inflicts injury in the process, may the injured person maintain an action for negligence? The answer is no, the injured person only has a cause of action for medical malpractice, the Court of Appeals ruled recently. We discuss that decision, as well as a decision involving the extent of an automobile seller’s security interest in a vehicle when the owner files for bankruptcy, and a decision involving the New York City Department of Investigation’s authority to investigate a person neither employed by nor doing work for the city for possible misconduct while appearing in a public forum.
Malpractice During IME
In Bazakos v. Lewis, the Court held (4-3) that the relationship between a doctor conducting an independent medical examination (IME) and the person being examined is a “limited physician-patient relationship” such that an action against the doctor for causing injury in the course of the examination must sound in malpractice, not negligence. It seems that the result came down to a matter of policy, specifically the policy behind the legislature’s decision to shorten the statute of limitations for medical malpractice actions.
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