Decision due

Ruling on recusal
request is pending

By David Baker
Posted Monday April 3, 2012

A decision from the judge assigned to a lawsuit in which Samaritan Hospital claims its reputation has been damaged by the use of an Internet domain name and a logo is awaited two weeks after a formal request was made for him to remove himself from the case.

The motion for recusal was filed on March 13. It asked acting Rensselaer County Supreme Court Justice Andrew G. Ceresia to step aside to avoid any appearance of impropriety after it was discovered that between 2000 and 2005 he worked at Carter, Conboy, Case, Blackmore, Maloney & Laird, where he represented insurance companies and in at least one case defended St. Mary’s Hospital in Troy in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

A counterclaim in Samaritan’s lawsuit alleges that the hospital withheld medical records during a wrongful-death case against it arising from its care of Lisa Baker, who died while a patient in 2003.

The hospital’s attorneys in that lawsuit were Carter, Conboy, Case, Blackmore, Maloney & Laird.

As was reported here last month, Samaritan Hospital has filed legal papers objecting to the request for Ceresia to step aside.

In February, the hospital asked Ceresia to throw out the counterclaims in the suit. That motion also is pending and should not be decided until after the request for recusal is settled.

Ceresia will have to make a decision soon; a preliminary conference in the case is scheduled for Thursday of next week

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