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PLAINTIFF IN THIS SLIP AND FALL CASE DID NOT CALL HER TREATING PHYSICIAN AS A WITNESS AND DID NOT DEMONSTRATE THE PHYSICIAN WAS UNAVAILABLE OR THAT HIS TESTIMONY WOULD BE CUMULATIVE; PLAINTIFF RELIED SOLELY ON THE TESTIMONY OF A PSYCHIATRIST WHO FIRST SAW PLAINTIFF SIX YEARS AFTER THE ACCIDENT; DEFENDANT’S REQUEST FOR A “MISSING WITNESS” JURY INSTRUCTION SHOULD HAVE BEEN GRANTED; VERDICT SET ASIDE (FIRST DEPT).

The First Department, granting defendant’s motion to set aside the jury verdict and direct a new trial in this sidewalk slip and fall case, determined plaintiff’s failure to call her treating physician as a witness warranted the “missing witness” jury instruction. Plaintiff called only, Dr. Guy, a psychiatrist who saw plaintiff only a few times six years after the injury:

Plaintiff alleges that she was injured when she was walking on the sidewalk adjacent to defendant’s property when her foot became trapped in a hole, causing her to fall. At trial, plaintiff alleged that because of the accident, she suffered a cervical herniation that caused radiculopathy and required surgery. She further alleged that injuries to her knee and her lumbar spine would require future surgery.

The trial court should have given the jury a missing witness charge with regard to Dr. Jason Gallina, plaintiff’s treating physician and surgeon from the period beginning months after the accident until at least a year afterward. Dr. Gallina was the orthopedic surgeon who performed plaintiff’s cervical fusion surgery, and he was the doctor who allegedly recommended the lumbar surgery that plaintiff contended she would need in the future.

The law is well settled that a missing witness charge is warranted for the failure to call a treating physician as a witness at trial, unless the party opposing the inference shows that the witness is either unavailable or not under the party’s control, or that the witness’s testimony would be cumulative … . * * *

Although the burden was on plaintiff to show that Dr. Gallina was unavailable or not under her control, she made no such showing  … . … [T]he testimony from Dr. Gallina would not have been cumulative. Dr. Guy is a physiatrist, while Dr. Gallina is the orthopedic surgeon who performed plaintiff’s surgery. Encarnacion v St. Barnabas Hosp., 2026 NY Slip Op 03630, First Dept 6-9-26

Practice Point: The plaintiff in a personal injury action must call the treating physician as a witness or adequately explain the failure to do so. In the absence of an adequate explanation, the defendant is entitled to a “missing witness” jury instruction.​

 

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