A racketeering lawsuit filed in the New York Eastern District Court in Brooklyn last year has been dismissed in its entirety.
The lawsuit named 47 defendants, including orthopedic surgeons with Hempstead, N.Y.-based Total Orthopedics and Sports Medicine and Westbury-based New York Spine Institute owner Alexandre de Moura, MD, Long Island Press reported June 30. The lawsuit had alleged that the defendants performed unwarranted surgeries on construction workers in fraudulent accidents.
In a memorandum filed Feb. 18, the court ruled that the case lacked RICO standing because the alleged injuries are too attenuated from the alleged fraud. The concerns were previously litigated and can’t be raised again.
A judge granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit and said plaintiffs’ federal claims were “dismissed with prejudice, and their state law claims are dismissed without prejudice.”
All claims against the physicians and their practices were rejected and no longer pending.
Note: This article was updated Feb. 18 to reflect dismissals of the lawsuit and surgeons involved.
