Matter of Karp v Steinberg, 2012 NY Slip Op 08795 [101 AD3d 567]

December 20, 2012

Appellate Division, First Department

— [*1]

Goldfarb Abrandt Salzman & Kutzin LLP, New York (Ira Salzman of counsel), for appellants.

Donald M. Nussbaum, New York, for respondent.

Order, Surrogate’s Court, New York County (Kristin Booth Glen, S.), entered September 22, 2011, which granted respondent’s motion for summary judgment dismissing the forfeiture claim and denied petitioners’ cross motion for summary judgment, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Because the record demonstrates that there is no evidence to establish that decedent’s death was caused in part by sepsis, petitioners’ claim was properly dismissed at the summary judgment stage. Moreover, given that decedent’s sepsis was improving when he decided to stop receiving treatment, it cannot be shown that sepsis—rather than decedent’s competent decision to refuse further treatment, and the resulting uremia—caused his death ( cf. People v Snow , 79 AD3d 1252 , 1253 [2010], lv denied 16 NY3d 800 [2011]). Concur—Andrias, J.P., Moskowitz, Freedman and Abdus-Saalam, JJ..