Over the past year, the New York Court of Appeals has handed down three decisions that provide clear and broadly applicable interpretation of both statutory rules and common law principles in tort cases. These cases deal with a medical facility’s duty to protect patients’ medical records and the employer’s vicarious liability for acts of employees performed outside the scope of their employment, whether New York recognizes medical monitoring as an independent cause of action or as an element of damages, and the liability of a product manufacturer after substantial but foreseeable modifications have been made to an allegedly defectively designed product.
In John Doe v. Guthrie Clinic,1 the court considered an employer’s vicarious responsibility for the actions of its employees in the context of a medical facility’s duty to protect patients’ medical records. Guthrie Clinic’s patient John Doe (proceeding in this action under a fictitious name to protect his privacy interests) filed a federal court action against the clinic after one of its employed nurses, who was also Doe’s girlfriend’s sister-in-law, sent text messages to Doe’s girlfriend disclosing information regarding the sexually transmitted disease for which Doe was being treated. Doe sued the clinic for common law breach of fiduciary duty to maintain the confidentiality of personal health information, breach of contract, negligent hiring, negligent infliction of emotion distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and breach of duty to maintain the confidentiality of personal health information under three statutes.2 The clinic moved to dismiss.
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