Bergerstock v Auburn Mem. Hosp.
2004 NY Slip Op 08348 [12 AD3d 1034]
November 19, 2004
Appellate Division, Fourth Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, January 19, 2005


Grace Bergerstock, as Administrator of the Estate of Eleanor Gasparro, Deceased, Appellant, v Auburn Memorial Hospital, Respondent, et al., Defendants.

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Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Cayuga County (Peter E. Corning, A.J.), entered January 27, 2003. The order denied plaintiff's motion to compel the production of certain pathology materials to plaintiff's counsel for review by plaintiff's expert.

It is hereby ordered that the order so appealed from be and the same hereby is unanimously reversed in the exercise of discretion without costs and the motion is granted in accordance with the following Memorandum: Plaintiff, the administrator of the estate of decedent, commenced this medical malpractice action against Auburn Memorial Hospital (defendant) and various doctors for failing to timely diagnose decedent's condition. Plaintiff moved pursuant to CPLR 3124 to compel production of the original pathology slides taken during decedent's autopsy after defendant would only release "re-cuts," which are successive slices of the same pathological material. In the exercise of our discretion, we reverse the order of Supreme Court and grant plaintiff's motion to compel production of the original pathology slides to plaintiff's counsel for delivery to plaintiff's expert for examination, then to be returned to defendant (see Andon v 302-304 Mott St. Assoc., 94 NY2d 740, 745 [2000]). Present—Pigott, Jr., P.J., Green, Hurlbutt, Kehoe and Martoche, JJ.