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Playford v. Phelps Memorial Hospital Center
Citations: 254 A.D.2d 471; 680 N.Y.S.2d 267; 1998 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 11309
Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York; October 25, 1998; New York; State Appellate Court
In a personal injury case, the defendant, Phelps Memorial Hospital, appealed against a Supreme Court order that denied its motion to dismiss the complaint as time-barred. The appellate court reversed this order, granting the defendant's motion and dismissing the complaint. The case arose when the plaintiff, who was pregnant in October 1992, underwent an HIV test and was erroneously informed a month later that she tested negative. The negative result actually belonged to another patient. The plaintiff claimed she discovered her true HIV-positive status in December 1995 and alleged that two of her four children, born after the false report, were also HIV positive. She attributed the delay in diagnosis and treatment to the hospital's negligence. Initially, the Supreme Court classified the incident as ordinary negligence, allowing the statute of limitations to start from the date the plaintiff discovered the mistake. However, the appellate court clarified that the three-year statute of limitations for negligence claims begins from the date of the occurrence of the injury, not its discovery. Consequently, the plaintiff's action was found to be time-barred. The judges concurred with this ruling.