Staged accident lawsuit naming Long Island doctors dismissed on procedural grounds

A federal judge last week dismissed a 2025 federal racketeering lawsuit which named nearly a dozen Long Island medical firms and physicians, alleging they conspired to provide unnecessary surgeries on construction workers who staged fake accidents across New York City, with the court ruling the plaintiffs lacked the right to sue.

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Brian Cogan did not discuss the merits of the case but concluded only that the plaintiffs, Roosevelt Road Re, LTD and Tradesman Program Managers — a reinsurer that provides coverage to other insurance companies, and its agent, respectively — were too far removed from the alleged fraud to have standing in the case.

The decision was expected, both sides said, after a similar case filed by the same two plaintiffs against the Manhattan-based Subin law firm and dozens of other defendants, was dismissed last September because of identical reasoning.

The RICO statute requires a "direct relationship" between the scheme and a plaintiff’s damages, Cogan wrote.

The recently dismissed suit, filed last June, detailed a "widespread fraud scheme" to take advantage of New York State’s so-called "Scaffold Law." The 140-year-old law, which is exclusive to New York, places the blame squarely on property owners and contractors in the event of construction site falls. Workers aren't required to prove in a lawsuit that contractors or property owners were negligent — only that they sustained an injury involving "gravity."

The lawsuit, similar to others filed in recent months and reported by Newsday, alleged that construction workers — typically new immigrants — conspired to file bogus lawsuits and workers' compensation claims with the help of Manhattan-based William Schwitzer & Associates after pretending to be injured on job sites following unwitnessed falls from scaffolds or ladders. 

"The dismissal of this complaint against the Schwitzer law firm was expected," said John Carman, the company's attorney. "The court recognized that the plaintiff insurance companies were once again improperly resorting to the use of the civil RICO statute. The result is that insurance companies will not be permitted to sidestep their obligation to pay for the legitimate injuries of workers."

Dan Johnston, a Melville-based attorney representing the plaintiffs in both cases, said the rulings are "exclusively a procedural standing issue with no findings one way or the other on merit."

The decisions, Johnston said, are being appealed and will not impact several other lawsuits filed on behalf of primary insurance carriers, including against Schwitzer's law firm.

None of the defendants named in the suits have been criminally charged.

The June lawsuit named more than 40 defendants, predominantly medical providers, including at least five companies and six doctors with ties to Long Island.

They include the New York Spine Institute, headquartered in Westbury and with an office in Commack, along with its founder, Dr. Alexandre de Moura. The suit alleges de Moura unnecessarily performed an operation on the neck of a worker in 2023 and six weeks later determined he was "100% temporarily totally disabled" even though his range of motion was not evaluated.

In a statement to Newsday, de Moura said being named in the RICO suit "was one of the most professionally and personally difficult experiences of my career. The allegations had no basis in sound medical practice and were not legally sustainable. As a spine surgeon who has dedicated more than three decades to treating severely injured patients, having my integrity publicly questioned was deeply distressing for both me and my family."

Among the other companies named in the suit were Total Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, with four locations on Long Island, and two of their physicians or owners. Total Orthopedics did not respond to a request for comment.

The top leadership at Total Ortho continue to run the Orthopedics Department at Nassau University Medical Center, the debt-ridden public hospital whose oversight board was taken over by the state, although officials have said they are working to reduce the company's role there.

The other Long Island medical providers named in the suit did not respond to requests for comment.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.