Rivera v. Montefiore Medical Center

I would find the court’s denial of plaintiffs motion to preclude defendant’s expert from testifying as to a new hypothesis first introduced mid-trial — that decedent had a sudden, lethal cardiac event — reversible error, and I would remand for a new trial on pain and suffering.

The decedent was being treated by defendant hospital for bi*428lateral bronchopneumonia. As of mid-trial, both parties’ actions and submissions were consistent with the medical examiner’s autopsy report finding that the decedent died of that pneumonia, a death necessarily accompanied by pain and suffering attendant to the…