Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

43 N.Y.2d 696

Comiskey v. Arlen

New York Court of Appeals

Decided November 17, 1977

New York Court of Appeals · decided 1977-11-17

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1977-11-17

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently October 2012

16 state decisions

11019771980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1OPINION OF THE COURT

¶2Memorandum.

¶3Order affirmed, with costs. The formal written recommendation of the medical malpractice panel should not be suppressed on pretrial application. It was premature prior to trial, which might never take place, and which, if it does, might not give rise to considering the issue. And even if the *698issue arises, it might not result in prejudice to plaintiff. Moreover, issues of constitutionality should not be reached unnecessarily (cf., e.g., Matter of Peters v New York City Housing Auth., 307 NY 519, 527-528). If after trial, and despite the panel’s recommendation of no liability, plaintiff recovers a large judgment, it might no longer matter whether section 148-a of the Judiciary Law establishing the panels deprives a plaintiff of any constitutional rights, or, constitutionality aside, whether the panel made an improper determination on an inadequate basis.

¶4Chief Judge Breitel and Judges Jasen, Gabrielli, Jones, Wachtler and Cooke concur; Judge Fuchsberg taking no part.

¶5Order affirmed, with costs, in a memorandum. Question certified answered in the affirmative.

/43/ny2d/696 · .json · Public domain