Gomez-Kadawid v. Lee

Background

Yahkima Gomez-Kadawid, proceeding without a lawyer, sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a federal civil-rights law, and asserted state-law claims for battery and medical malpractice. He alleged that Doctors Jessica Lee, Sarah Alsabban, and Sarah Leavitt performed a dental procedure on him without his consent while he was a pretrial detainee at Bellevue Hospital Center. The complaint initially referred to Dr. Leavitt as “Dr. Leantt.”

Report and Recommendation

The defendants moved to dismiss the complaint. The case was referred to Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman for pretrial supervision and recommendations on motions. Judge Freeman recommended that the motion be denied without prejudice; that the defendants assist Gomez-Kadawid in identifying the people who performed the surgery; and that Gomez-Kadawid amend his complaint to address the personal involvement of Doctors Lee and Alsabban, service of required notices for his state-law claims, and any basis for extending the statutes of limitations or preventing the defendants from relying on them.

The recommendation gave the parties 14 days to object and warned that failing to object would waive objections and prevent appellate review. Neither side objected. The defendants then filed a letter identifying Dr. Alsabban as the attending surgeon and Dr. Lee as the resident surgeon.

Ruling

The Court reviewed the recommendation for clear error because no party objected and found none. Judge Valerie Caproni adopted the recommendation in full and denied the defendants’ motion without prejudice.

The Court ordered Gomez-Kadawid to file an amended complaint by April 4, 2022. The amendment had to: (1) specify Doctors Lee’s and Alsabban’s personal involvement in the alleged constitutional violation; (2) state whether he timely served notice of his battery and medical-malpractice claims on NYC Health + Hospitals; and (3) state any reasons why the statutes of limitations for those claims should be extended or why the defendants should be prevented from relying on them. The order states that failure to file the amended complaint by the deadline would result in dismissal of the § 1983 claim against Doctors Lee and Alsabban and dismissal of the battery and medical-malpractice claims against all defendants.

The Court also stated that appellate review was precluded because no objections were filed after adequate warning. It certified that any appeal would not be taken in good faith and denied permission to proceed without paying filing fees for purposes of appeal. The Clerk was directed to close the defendants’ motion and mail the relevant documents to Gomez-Kadawid.