Laura Jordan (Partner-White Plains, NY) and Christopher Hofmann (Associate-White Plains, NY) obtained a Decision and Order from Westchester County Supreme Court granting their motion for summary judgment in favor an orthopedic surgeon and his practice group alleged to have failed to properly perform, supervise, and manage post-operative rehabilitation for a 46-year-old patient following right labrum repair. It was alleged that the premature introduction of certain exercises during physical therapy caused the plaintiff to sustain re-injury to his shoulder requiring further surgery that resulted in residual deficits in strength, range of motion, and functionality. Having performed the initial arthroscopy and labrum repair, our orthopedic surgeon ordered and oversaw the plaintiff’s course of post-operative rehabilitation, which included attending physical therapy at the practice group with co-defendant physical therapist who was employed by the practice group. In granting our motion for summary judgment, the court agreed with Laura and Chris that the plaintiff’s expert affidavit was insufficient to defeat our motion for summary judgment because it was submitted by a physical therapist who did not and could not include in his affidavit that he had personal knowledge of the standard of care in the field of orthopedic surgery. Because the claims against the orthopedic surgeon sounded in medical malpractice, arising from the patient-physician relationship, they argued that the plaintiff’s expert was unqualified to opine as to the applicable standard of care. The court also adopted our argument in reply that since plaintiff’s expert was a physical therapist rather than a medical doctor, he was unqualified to opine within a reasonable degree of medical certainty that any deviation was a proximate cause of the injuries. The court’s Decision also granted co-defendant’s motion for summary judgment, which merely adopted and incorporated by reference the expert submissions and arguments raised by Laura and Chris.