WILLOUGHBY v. MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL (2005)

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Shirley Werner Kornreich, J.), entered June 23, 2004, which, in an action for false imprisonment against a hospital, denied plaintiff's motion for summary judgment, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

An issue of fact exists as to whether, inter alia, plaintiff consented to all or part of the alleged 14-day unlawful confinement (see Parvi v. City of Kingston, 41 N.Y.2d 553, 556, 394 N.Y.S.2d 161, 362 N.E.2d 960 [1977] ).   Such issue is raised by plaintiff's own evidence that she voluntarily went to defendant's emergency room and four days later signed a “Seventy-Two Hour Retraction Letter” in which she stated her willingness to remain at defendant hospital as a voluntary patient, and the absence of evidence as to when and to whom plaintiff first requested to be released (see Winegrad v. New York Univ. Med. Ctr., 64 N.Y.2d 851, 853, 487 N.Y.S.2d 316, 476 N.E.2d 642 [1985] ).   We would add that the motion was premature in view of defendant's outstanding disclosure requests (see Ellington v. R.L.S.A. Realty Corp., 202 A.D.2d 229, 609 N.Y.S.2d 781 [1994] ).