Opinion
Submitted October 19, 1999
December 2, 1999
In an action to recover damages for medical malpractice, the plaintiff appeals, on the ground of inadequacy, from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Feuerstein, J.), dated August 19, 1998, which, upon a jury verdict, is in her favor and against the defendant Terrace Heights Hospital only in the sum of $246,617.08.
Reingold Tucker, P.C., Brooklyn, N.Y. (Abraham Reingold of counsel), for appellant.
Bivona Cohen, P.C., New York, N.Y. (Richard M. Fedrow and Mary Y. J. Kim of counsel), for respondent.
DAVID S. RITTER, J.P., DANIEL W. JOY, GLORIA GOLDSTEIN, LEO F. McGINITY, JJ.
DECISION ORDER
ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed, with costs.
We reject the plaintiff's contention that the Supreme Court should have charged the jury that the defendant Terrace Heights Hospital (hereinafter the hospital) could be held vicariously liable for the alleged negligence of the defendant Dr. Robert Goldberger, and the nonparty Dr. Jeffrey Applebaum. As a general rule, a hospital is not vicariously liable for the malpractice of a private attending physician who is not its employee (see, Hill v. St. Clare's Hosp., 67 N.Y.2d 72 ; Abraham v. Dulit, 255 A.D.2d 345 ). An exception to this rule exists where the patient enters the hospital through the emergency room seeking treatment from the hospital and not from a particular physician of the patient's choosing (see, Abraham v. Dulit, supra;Litwak v. Our Lady of Victory Hosp. of Lackawanna, 238 A.D.2d 881 ;Ryan v. New York City Health Hosps. Corp., 220 A.D.2d 734).
The plaintiff failed to introduce any credible evidence from which a jury could have concluded that the doctors at issue were hospital employees, and there was no evidence supporting a finding that the exception to the general rule applied here.
The plaintiff's remaining contentions are without merit.
RITTER, J.P., JOY, GOLDSTEIN, and McGINITY, JJ., concur.