In Escobar-Barrera v. Kissin, the Appellate Division reversed the trial court, which granted the defendant’s motion for an involuntary dismissal of a personal injury claim after a doctor was unavailable to testify for the plaintiff. Because the plaintiff’s claim was completely dependent on the doctor’s testimony, the inability to produce her as a witness resulted in the irretrievable loss of the plaintiff’s claim, and the judge’s eagerness to expedite the court’s business or to utilize fully the court’s time, should not have interfered with the duty of administering justice.
