Doe v. Montefiore Med. Ctr. (Summary)

NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION/RETENTION

Doe v. Montefiore Med. Ctr., No. 12 Civ. 686 (CM) (S.D. N.Y. Feb. 19, 2013)

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted in part and denied in part a medical center’s motion for summary judgment.  In the case, a patient was allegedly sexually assaulted by a physician employed by the medical center.  At the time of the alleged assault, the physician was in violation of the medical center’s policy that required a chaperone to be present when a male physician conducted an intimate exam on a female patient.

The patient sued the medical center for, among other things, negligent supervision or retention and negligence.  In granting the medical center’s motion for summary judgment on the patient’s negligent supervision claim, the court concluded that internal e-mails that demonstrated that the medical center knew of the physician’s bizarre behavior did not provide evidence from which an inference could be made that the medical center specifically knew or should have known that the physician “had a propensity for violence or sexual abuse.”   However, the court denied the medical center’s motion for summary judgment on the patient’s claim that the medical center negligently failed to apply its chaperone policy.  The court noted that an administrator for the medical center stated that the chaperone policy was implemented to prevent the occurrence of sexual assaults and, thus, the sexual assault was foreseeable.  Accordingly, the court concluded that the negligence claim regarding the chaperone policy must be submitted to a jury.