§ 214-e.Action to recover damages for personal injury caused by the infusion of such blood products which result in the contraction of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and/or AIDS

CPLR 214-e is a narrow, one-time revival statute. It addresses claims against manufacturers of blood products where the infusion of those products resulted in the contraction of HIV or AIDS — injuries tied to blood-clotting products and transfusions given before HIV screening existed, many of which weren't understood or diagnosed until years after the exposure. By the time the connection to a specific manufacturer's product became clear, the ordinary limitations period had often already expired.

The section responds by reviving those claims for a fixed period: an action barred as of the section's effective date because the applicable limitations period had already expired could still be commenced and prosecuted, provided the plaintiff sued within two years of that effective date. That window closed in December 1999, so the section no longer creates a live right to sue — its revival function was tied to that specific two-year period and nothing more.

Two limits bound its reach. It applies only to claims against a proprietary manufacturer of blood products, not to blood banks or hospitals directly, based on the section's own terms. And it doesn't apply to any civil action governed by the statute of limitations of another jurisdiction, so the revival only helped claims that New York law otherwise controlled.

CPLR 214-e belongs to the same family as CPLR 214-b and 214-c — legislative corrections for the mismatch between an exposure-based limitations period and a disease that takes years to surface and to trace to its cause. It's also a narrower cousin of CPLR 218's general transitional framework, reviving one specific class of claim for a fixed window rather than setting a general rule for the transition between old and new law.