WATTS v. AMERICAN BD COMPANY BD (2023)

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, New York.

Starr T. WATTS, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. AMERICAN BD COMPANY also known as American BD Co. Opici Wines et al., Defendants-Appellants.

950 Decided: October 31, 2023

Kern, J.P., Friedman, Kennedy, Pitt–Burke, JJ.

The Law Offices of Terrence F. Kuhn, New York (Anthony Bianchi of counsel), for appellants. Chirico Law PLLC, Brooklyn (Vincent Chirico of counsel), for respondent.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Adam Silvera, J.), entered on or about January 23, 2023, which denied defendants' motion to compel plaintiff to provide an authorization for her pre-accident psychiatric and psychological records, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

In this action in which plaintiff was injured in a motor vehicle accident, the court providently exercised its discretion in denying defendants' motion to compel, since plaintiff did not seek to recover damages for emotional or psychological injuries, or aggravation of a preexisting emotional or mental condition (see Serra v. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., 116 A.D.3d 639, 640, 985 N.Y.S.2d 20 [1st Dept. 2014]; Churchill v. Malek, 84 A.D.3d 446, 446, 922 N.Y.S.2d 341 [1st Dept. 2011]). Plaintiff's general allegations in her bill of particulars of anxiety, mental anguish and the loss of enjoyment of life did not place her entire mental health history at issue (see Abrew v. Triple C Props., LLC, 178 A.D.3d 526, 527, 111 N.Y.S.3d 843 [1st Dept. 2019]).

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