Many times after a person has been injured due to negligence, changes may occur as a result of the negligence. For instance a property owner can make changes that make his or her property safer. The law wants to encourage this type of behavior. Therefore, in most cases evidence of changes after an accident (also known as "subsequent remedial measures" is inadmissible. A recent case highlighted this rationale. In Alfieri v. Carmelite Nursing Home, Inc. ,(N.Y.City Civ.Ct.)
Litigation - Evidence of subsequent remedial training is inadmissible to show employee's negligence or employer's negligent control.
Evidence of the subsequent remedial training of an employee is inadmissible to show the employee's negligence or the employer's negligent control over the employee, a New York trial court has ruled as a matter of apparent first impression under state law. Consequently, the court ruled, evidence of any post-accident training received by a nursing home employee would be inadmissible to show the nursing home's negligence at the time of an accident in which a 90-year-old resident fell and sustained a hip fracture. Thus, pursuant to the rule that evidence that is inadmissible at trial is also undiscoverable pre-trial, evidence of the employee's post-accident training was undiscoverable in the personal injury action arising from the resident's fall.
