A Staten Island judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a woman who slipped and fell on a manhole cover, went into premature labor, and gave birth to a child who was later diagnosed with autism.
Supreme Court Justice Joseph Maltese ruled on Feb. 5 in Melnick v. Consolidated Edison, 102654/09, that although two studies had suggested a possible association between low birth weights and autism, there is no generally accepted causal link. Furthermore, he found that the studies were not relevant to the facts of the specific case.
