Over the past 13 years, we have had several occasions to address the burdens of proof of litigants on summary judgment motions in medical malpractice actions. In June 2011, we discussed the Second Department’s decision in Stukas v. Streiter, 83 A.D.3d 18 (2nd Dept. 2011), which made clear that a plaintiff is required to establish an issue of fact as to causation in opposition to summary judgment only if the moving defendant has satisfied its burden on that issue (See Thomas Moore and Matthew Gaier, “Clarification of Summary Judgment Standard,” New York Law Journal, June 7, 2011, p. 3).
Since that time, each of the other departments of the Appellate Division have adopted the same rule. See Barry v. Lee, 180 A.D.3d 103 (1st Dept. 2019); Tkacheff v. Roberts, 147 A.D.3d 1271 (3rd Dept. 2017); Bubar v. Brodman, 177 A.D.3d 1358 (4th Dept. 2019).
