Second Circuit – Americans with Disabilities Act: Costin v. Glens Falls Hospital, et al.

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United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Americans with Disabilities Act

Substance abuse disorder – CPS investigation

Costin v. Glens Falls Hospital, et al.

23-379

Judges Livingston, Jacobs, and Lohier

Background: The plaintiff alleged that the defendant discriminated against her on the basis of her substance-abuse disorder in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Specifically, she alleged that when she went to the defendant hospital to give birth, the defendant practitioners learned that she takes drugs to control her substance-abuse disorder. The defendants then proceeded to conduct drug tests without informed consent, reported her to the New York State Child Abuse and Maltreatment register, withheld pain relief, accelerated the plaintiff’s labor without her consent, and kept her and her baby in the hospital, and refused to explain alternative treatments available to the baby. She appeals from the dismissal of her claim.

Ruling: The Second Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part. The court found that she has standing to pursue injunctive relief as she plausibly alleged her intent to return to the hospital as it is the only hospital within 15 miles of her home and she was a prior patient at the hospital. The Second Circuit further held that she need not allege her desire to have another child only that she intended to the return to the hospital as a patient. The Second Circuit found that the defendant’s decision to administer pain medication or accelerate labor, and how to treat a jaundiced infant are medical decisions even if the decision-making was faulty. Thus, it cannot support a claim under the ADA. Finally, the plaintiff plausibly alleged claims involving the hospital’s instigation of a CPS investigation and its administration of a drug test as she alleged she was told by hospital staff that such measures are taken every time a pregnant woman on suboxone is a patient at the hospital.

Frances Rodriguez, of Schulte Roth & Zabel, for the plaintiff-appellant; Eric C. Schwenker, of McPhillips Fitzgerald & Cullum, Christopher J. Daniel, of Martin Clearwater & Bell, and Cathleen Kelly Rebar and Patrick Jones Healey, of Rebar Kelly, for the defendants-appellees.

Oral argument audio