ERVIN v. The City of New York, et al., Defendants. (2005)

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Denis J. Boyle, J.), entered January 9, 2004, which, to the extent appealed from as limited by the brief, granted the motion of defendants Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center and Dr. Ramona Bailey Sunderwirth for summary judgment dismissing the complaint as against them, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

 No triable issue was raised as to whether defendants Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center and Dr. Sunderwirth engaged in willful misconduct or were grossly negligent in making the disputed report of child abuse.   Accordingly, since no grounds have been adduced upon which the Hospital and Dr. Sunderwirth's actions in connection with the child abuse report might be deprived of the qualified immunity conferred by Social Services Law § 419, summary judgment dismissing the claims against them predicated on the report was correct (see Rine v. Chase, 309 A.D.2d 796, 765 N.Y.S.2d 648 [2003];  Isabelle V. v. City of New York, 150 A.D.2d 312, 313, 541 N.Y.S.2d 809 [1989] ).   Insofar as plaintiff's claims against Dr. Sunderwirth are premised on her grand jury and trial testimony, she is shielded by the common-law doctrine of absolute witness immunity (see Sykes v. James, 13 F.3d 515, 519 [1993], cert. denied 512 U.S. 1240, 114 S.Ct. 2749, 129 L.Ed.2d 867 [1994];  Storck v. Suffolk County Dept. of Social Servs., 62 F.Supp.2d 927 [E.D.N.Y.1999] ).