DOE v. ROE (1997)

 Supreme Court erred in granting that part of defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing plaintiff's request for compensatory damages in this action for breach of oral contract and unlawful disclosure of confidential HIV information (see, Public Health Law art 27-F).   It is undisputed that defendants, a physician and a professional corporation, violated Public Health Law § 2782 by sending medical records disclosing plaintiff's HIV status to the attorney for plaintiff's former employer (see, Doe v. Roe, 190 A.D.2d 463, 599 N.Y.S.2d 350, lv. dismissed 82 N.Y.2d 846, 606 N.Y.S.2d 597, 627 N.E.2d 519).   Defendants moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint on the ground that the unlawful disclosure was not a proximate cause of plaintiff's injuries.   In support of the motion, defendants submitted an affidavit from the attorney for plaintiff's former employer stating that, three days before the medical records from defendants arrived in the mail, he received records from another physician that disclosed the confidential information.   The attorney did not state, however, that he already knew of plaintiff's HIV status when he reviewed defendants' records.   In any event, the compensatory damages recoverable by plaintiff are not limited to those arising from his former employer's knowledge of his HIV status.   Whether defendants' unlawful disclosure of confidential information was a proximate cause of plaintiff's alleged injuries is a question of fact for trial (see generally, Derdiarian v. Felix Contr. Corp., 51 N.Y.2d 308, 316, 434 N.Y.S.2d 166, 414 N.E.2d 666, rearg. denied 52 N.Y.2d 784, 436 N.Y.S.2d 622, 417 N.E.2d 1010).

Because plaintiff's request for compensatory damages must be reinstated, we do not reach defendants' contention that plaintiff cannot recover punitive damages absent an award of compensatory damages.

Order unanimously modified on the law and as modified affirmed without costs.

MEMORANDUM: