The funnywoman, 81, stopped breathing during a routine procedure at Yorkville Endoscopy in New York in August, 2014, and subsequently passed away at a nearby hospital on 4 September, 2014.

A medical examiner later ruled Rivers died of brain damage due to a lack of oxygen, and her daughter Melissa launched legal action against those she held responsible for the surgery-gone-wrong.

Lawyers for Melissa Rivers wanted Yorkville Endoscopy medics to admit to the wrongdoings allegedly noted in clinic records, but Justice Joan Lobis has since blocked the move, because the admission would address "facts at the heart of the controversy".

In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court in January (15), Melissa accused Dr. Gwen Korovin of performing an unauthorised laryngoscopy on her mother, and claimed she "had no right" to treat any patients at Yorkville Endoscopy, because she reportedly wasn't licensed there.

She also blasted the medics for negligence after Korovin was photographed in the operating room appearing to pose beside a sedated Rivers.

Both Korovin and her co-defendant, Dr. Lawrence Cohen, have denied all allegations.

The judge's decision emerges almost a week to the day of the first anniversary of Rivers' death.