SIMMONS v. MOUNT ST MICHAEL ACADEMY (1999)

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Jerry Crispino, J.), entered September 24, 1997, which denied defendant's motion to compel plaintiff to answer questions regarding her history of drug and alcohol abuse at a further independent psychiatric examination, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

The motion was properly denied for failure to show that the treatment records pertaining to plaintiff's substance abuse already produced pursuant to a prior court order are insufficient for purposes of conducting a psychiatric exam.   While such examination may not be “comprehensive” as defendant would like absent dialogue between its psychiatrist and plaintiff on the subject of her past substance abuse, there is a sufficient basis for an examination to ascertain whether plaintiff is suffering from the mental conditions alleged, and, if so, whether such conditions can be attributed to the medications she allegedly took to relieve the physical pain she allegedly experienced as a result of her fall on defendant's premises.   Nowhere in the psychiatrist's affidavit is there specified any particular information concerning plaintiff's past substance abuse that he sought from plaintiff and is not contained in the records already produced, or any explanation why plaintiff's history of substance abuse can only be obtained from plaintiff herself during the course of being examined.

MEMORANDUM DECISION.