Can a hospital be sued for not requesting a required autopsy after patient died during surgery ...as a seperate cause of action

October 27, 2017

Question

Criminal lawsuit against hospital for not following ny law on required autopsy after questionable death preventing malpratice lawsuit

Answer

If you're talking about a civil case, and a hospital's failure to request the medical examiner or coroner do an autopsy, AND the next-of-kin specifically requested it, but it was not mandatory (eg. homicide victim, death in police custody, etc), you may have a basis for requesting a spoliation sanction in a civil action against the hospital, but I don't believe there is a separate cause of action for failing to do a non-mandatory autopsy. If it was a mandatory autopsy that was not done, the Medical Examiner or coroner would be responsible party. It's an issue I haven't seen personally, so I would like to hear what other attorneys on here have to say about it.

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