Williams v. Montefiore Medical Center, Corp.
- Naomi Buchwald
- 1:22-cv-09627
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 3
In Williams v. Montefiore, Judge Buchwald treated silence as abandoning most emotional-distress claims, limited discovery, and terminated a records motion.
Darrell Williams, Montefiore Medical Center, Corp., and therapist Mark Insetta are affected. Williams may continue to pursue only garden-variety emotional-distress damages under this order while avoiding production of the therapist’s records; the parties must continue limited discovery.
What happened
In Williams v. Montefiore Medical Center, Corp., Darrell Williams alleges that Montefiore discriminated against him because of disability and religion when it fired him for refusing a required COVID-19 vaccine. He seeks damages, including for emotional distress.
Montefiore asked the court to require Mark Insetta, a therapist who treated Williams, to provide Williams’s medical records. The court had given Williams seven days to consent to releasing the records or give up claims for emotional-distress damages beyond ordinary, garden-variety distress. Williams did not respond.
Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald treated Williams’s silence as a decision to withdraw or abandon those broader emotional-distress claims to preserve his therapist-patient confidentiality. She directed the parties to continue limited discovery, ordered a status update within 60 days, and directed the Clerk to terminate the pending records motion.
The detailed version
- Williams v. Montefiore Medical Center, Corp. · No. 1:22-cv-09627
- Naomi Buchwald
- Mar. 7, 2024
Background
Darrell Williams alleges that Montefiore Medical Center, Corp., doing business as Montefiore Medical Center, discriminated against him based on disability and religion when it terminated his employment because he refused to take a COVID-19 vaccine mandated by the Department of Health. Williams alleges that the termination caused mental and emotional turmoil and seeks, among other relief, compensatory and punitive damages.
Medical-records dispute
Montefiore repeatedly asked Mark Insetta, a therapist who treated Williams during the relevant period, to produce Williams’s medical records. Insetta stated that he would release the notes only if ordered by the court. Montefiore moved for an order compelling production of the records.
On February 27, 2024, the court found that Williams had placed his mental and emotional condition directly at issue. The court gave him seven days to consent to Insetta’s production of the records or otherwise be precluded from seeking emotional-distress damages.
Ruling
More than seven days passed without a response from Williams. The court ordered that his silence be treated as a decision to withdraw or formally abandon all emotional-distress claims except for garden-variety emotional distress, meaning ordinary emotional upset, in order to avoid giving up his therapist-patient privilege.
The court ordered the parties to continue discovery, limited as it might now be, and to provide a status update within 60 days. It also ordered the Clerk of Court to terminate the motion pending at ECF No. 24. The order does not state that the underlying discrimination claims were decided.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.