Largest Medical Malpractice Verdict Worldwide

Largest Medical Malpractice Verdict Worldwide

by | Nov 27, 2024 | News

Kassi Foote |  KOB  | November 26, 2024

RIO RANCHO, N.M. – A jury just awarded a Rio Rancho man with what could be the largest medical malpractice verdict in history.

The Rio Rancho man ended up suing NuMale Medical Center at Wyoming and Paseo because of what he’s gone through and lasting medical consequences.

According to the lawsuit, the physician assistant in this case is Steven Chapman. The victim – Michael – told Chapman he was interested in testosterone replacement therapy to improve his energy and a medically managed weight loss plan.

But according to the lawsuit, Chapman brought up erectile dysfunction. Even though Michael said he was not interested in ED treatment, Chapman told him it was designed to work with the testosterone replacement therapy.

Ultimately, Michael purchased a plan which included testosterone pellet implants in his butt and at home penis injections.

When Michael felt the medications weren’t working, he went back to the office. The lawsuit states Chapman said Michael wasn’t doing it right, demonstrated the penis injection, and sent him home with a medically induced erection.

“This physician assistant injected the chemical into his penis because he couldn’t figure out how to do it, and he injected 75% more of the chemical and a stronger dose than he should have, and sent the patient home and said ‘Go show all your friends.’ This is what he said to a 66-year-old man,” said Nicholas Rowley, Michael’s attorney.

The lawsuit states Michael couldn’t get rid of the erection over the weekend and went back to the clinic. Medical staff tried painful and embarrassing procedures to help Michael, but it didn’t work.

Chapman reportedly told Michael to drive himself to the emergency room where he had emergency surgery. But the damage was done.

“His penis is dead. It’s actually, what it is now is it is much smaller than what it was, and it’s just a lump of scar tissue that doesn’t work in any way shape or form,” said Rowley.

Rowley says the urologist who treated his client claimed he’d seen cases like this before. But the close to half a billion dollar verdict will keep it from happening again.

He also wants this to be a reminder for people.

“If someone’s trying to sell you something medically, take a step back, ask other health care providers, get second opinions and third opinions. If there’s advertisements saying something’s going to be a quick fix for a problem, don’t trust it. Don’t trust it,” said Rowley.

The jury awarded Michael $412 million, but it could surpass $550 million once interest kicks in.

KOB 4 did get a statement from NuMale Medical Center’s president, Brad Palubicki. He says NuMale Medical Center is committed to high quality and safe patient care. They disagree with the verdict and intend to pursue all available legal remedies, including appeal.

 

View the entire article at KOB

$63 Million Jury Award for a Man Who Developed Cancer

$63 Million Jury Award for a Man Who Developed Cancer

by | Jul 9, 2024 | News

John Roemer | Daily Journal | June 26, 2024

Toxic tort cases where plaintiffs’ injuries arose decades ago are notoriously difficult to prove and win. But attorneys from Ernst Law Group APC and Trial Lawyers for Justice — enduring what one called “scorched earth litigation” from a deep pockets defendant now owned by Chevron Corp. — prevailed and obtained a $63 million jury award for a man who developed cancer more than 25 years after living over an old oilfield sump pit.

The award included $41 million in punitive damages. Making matters harder for the plaintiff’s lawyers was the complication that their client’s multiple myeloma was in remission at the time of the 23-day trial. Wright v. Union Oil Co. of California, 21CV00925 (S. Barbara Sup. Ct., filed March 8, 2021).

“We had to work for our facts. They didn’t want to give us any discovery. They violated court orders,” said M. Taylor Ernst, the founder of San Luis Obispo’s Ernst Law Group, who brought on Trial Lawyers for Justice to try the case. Co-counsel Brian J. Ward, of Trial Lawyers for Justice’s Ventura office, said that along with seeking justice for client Kevin Wright, the team was motivated by a wish to document the history of the oil and gas industry’s abuse of California’s environment.

“And that’s what we did,” Ward said. “Going deep into the history books we found our client’s injury came at the epicenter of the industry that began in the 1890s in the Santa Maria oil fields. We treated the courtroom like a public square where we could expose an industry that has long ducked accountability here.”

Joining Taylor Ernst and Ward were Don A. Ernst and Terry J. Kilpatrick of Ernst Law Group and Erin L. Powers of Trial Lawyers for Justice. That firm’s Jakob Z. Norman of Bozeman, Mont., was also on the team. They faced off with defense lawyers from Alston & Bird LLP and King & Spaulding LLP.

At one point early in the trial the defense violated a court ruling they’d sought that barred use of the term “big oil.” Ward said, “So they started out by saying, ‘Who has a problem with big oil?” Superior Court Judge James F. Rigali asked the plaintiffs if they wanted a new trial. “We declined, based on our faith and pride in our case,” Ernst said.

He likened the trial to a war. “There was no mediation. There was no high low agreement. There was no settlement conference.” The defense offered $50,000 to end the case, he said. Cross-appeals are in progress.

Wright had lived on the contaminated premises for two years and was diagnosed 27 years later with a cancer known to be associated with benzene exposure. The defense denied everything, and the court excluded evidence that Chevron had made remedial efforts to clean the property in 2016.

The plaintiff team found old aerial photos of the oil field showing the location of a chemical sump pit the size of an Olympic swimming pool — “literally underneath our client’s bedroom,” Ernst said. After the trial’s liability phase, Ward said the team was uncertain about quantifying punitives. “But the jury found a way. They made it a million dollars for every year the place went without a cleanup.”

–John Roemer

Arrest of Stanford student journalist covering barricaded pro-Palestinian protest gets pushback

Arrest of Stanford student journalist covering barricaded pro-Palestinian protest gets pushback

by | Jun 25, 2024 | News

Suzanne Phan | ABC 7 News | June 21, 2024, 11:45 PM PST

STANFORD, Calif. (KGO) — When pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the office of Stanford’s president, a student journalist followed them inside.

That student reporter did what journalists do–documented the news as it happened.

However, the journalist could now face criminal charges. His attorney and free speech organizations are pushing back.

“His job was to report. He had no criminal intent,” said Nick Rowley, the attorney representing Stanford student Dilan Gohill.

Police arrested the 19-year-old freshman on June 5 as he was covering a protest for the school newspaper, the Stanford Daily.

Police say a dozen pro-Palestinian protesters barricaded themselves inside the university president’s office and did extensive damage.

The protesters were arrested and booked on suspicion of felony burglary, vandalism and conspiracy.

Gohill, who was reporting and wearing his press badge at the time, could also face charges.

“Charges have not been filed. But Stanford is pushing to have charges filed against him, which is wrong. It’s unethical. It’s unconstitutional,” Rowley said.

On Thursday, the First Amendment Coalition based in San Rafael, along with two dozen journalism groups sent a letter to Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen, asking him not to prosecute the student journalist.

“It was clear that Mr. Gohill was there at the scene to cover the news. There’ s no evidence he was there conspiring with any of the protesters or that he was there for any other reason other than to report the news,” said David Snyder with First Amendment Coalition.

ABC7 News reached out to Stanford University for comment but did not hear back. In a statement previously released, the university said:

“We believe that the daily reporter reporting from inside the building acted in violation of the law and university policies.”

The DA’s office says it has not received the case yet and cannot comment.

Gohill’s attorney says this case is straight forward.

“Dilan didn’t do anything wrong. He didn’t vandalize anything. The protesters, they may have committed crimes. That’s for a jury to decide they had the intent. They wanted to barricade themselves in. This is a young reporter who got stuck in the middle of it all–trying his best to ethically do his job. He didn’t do anything of those things,” Rowley said.

 

Bayer Hit With $857 Million Verdict on Toxic Monsanto Chemicals

by | Feb 3, 2024 | News

Jef Feeley | Bloomberg News | December 19, 2023, 12:12 AM PST
Bayer AG was ordered to pay $857 million to former students and parent volunteers at a Seattle-area school who blamed exposure to the company’s hazardous chemicals at the facility for causing brain damage and other ailments.

A jury in Washington state on Monday found that levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, at the school weren’t “reasonably safe” and awarded $73 million in compensatory damages and $784 million in punitive damages to two parents who volunteered at Sky Valley Education Center along with five former students, according to court filings.

The decision marks the eighth time Washington state juries have found that students, teachers and parents who spent time in the facility were harmed by exposure to PCBs used in fluorescent light fixtures. Jurors have awarded a total of more than $1.5 billion in damages in those cases, which Bayer is appealing.

Monsanto’s Woes

“Our clients would happily trade all the money they were awarded if they could get their health back,” Mike Wampold, one of the lawyers who represented the students and parents, said in an interview.

Bayer will appeal the verdict and pursue post-trial motions to reduce the damages awarded, it said by email. The company insists that the plaintiffs were not exposed to unsafe levels of PCBs. The stock was little changed in Frankfurt trading.

Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion, has been dealing with a host of legal issues inherited from the US maker of seeds and herbicides, including thousands of lawsuits alleging that its Roundup weed killer causes cancer.

Besides the $16 billion set aside to resolve Roundup cases, the German conglomerate faces mounting liabilities tied to PCBs, frequently found in electrical equipment. The compounds were banned in the US in 1979 after researchers found they posed a cancer threat.

Bayer’s top-end exposure in PCB contamination claims from US states and individuals could exceed $2.5 billion, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. The company has already paid out more than $650 million in settlements of lawsuits filed by US cities and counties over pollution of waterways.

School’s Lights

In the most recent Washington state case, a parent at Sky Valley school alleged PCB exposure caused her brain damage, while others in the case blamed the chemicals for neurological disorders and illnesses such as lupus, according to court records.

In the trial, Angela Bard, a volunteer at the school which her daughter Jessica attended, won a total of $119 million for her injuries. Jessica was awarded $127 million in damages.

Jurors found that Monsanto and Pharmacia, a related company, supplied PCB-laced products used in the school’s lighting system and failed to provide adequate warnings about the chemicals’ health risks, according to court filings.

The verdict was reported earlier by the New York Times.

Last month, a separate jury awarded workers at the Sky Valley facility $165 million in damages over their claims that the PCBs caused their cancers and brain injuries. The plaintiffs included six teachers and a custodian.

The most recent case is Bard v. Pharmacia, 21-2-14305, Washington State Superior Court for King County (Seattle).

View the entire article at Bloomberg Law

Supporters of Tort Reform in Iowa Accused of Manufacturing a Crisis

Supporters of Tort Reform in Iowa Accused of Manufacturing a Crisis

by | Feb 3, 2024 | News

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Billionaire Charles Koch’s political network won a major state legislative victory last year when Iowa passed a bill that limits damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. Now, a new court filing claims that an insurance company deliberately lost a major medical malpractice case instead of agreeing to a settlement, with the explicit goal of spurring the Iowa Legislature to take action on the issue.

The case involved severe brain damage to a child due to a botched delivery, which in 2022 resulted in a $97.4-million jury verdict, the largest in Iowa’s history.

In response, the Iowa Legislature passed a so-called “tort reform” bill that Republican Governor Kim Reynolds — who won reelection in 2022 with Koch’s backing — signed into law on February 16, 2023. House File 161 limits “noneconomic” damages for pain and suffering that a jury can award a plaintiff to $1 million (or $2 million if the civil action includes a hospital) in cases of medical malpractice if there is substantial or permanent loss or impairment of a bodily function, substantial disfigurement, loss of pregnancy, or death.

Legislators cited the record-high jury verdict as a reason for supporting the cap on damages. Prior to passage of the new law, there were no limits on jury awards for medical malpractice cases in Iowa involving severe injury or death.

Tyler Raygor, director of Iowa’s American for Prosperity (Iowa AFP), and Drew Klein, director of the group’s Des Moines branch, lobbied in favor of the bill while its members sent legislators letters of support. Charles and David Koch founded AFP, which relies on Koch funding vehicles for most of its revenues. 

Nationally, the Koch astroturf operation claims 4 million members and 36 state chapters, with plans to expand to all 50 states.

AFP’s super PAC, AFP Action, recently endorsed former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley in the GOP presidential primary.

AFP state chapters have long pushed tort reform, and last year Florida’s AFP chapter congratulated Governor Ron DeSantis and the state legislature for limiting what it called “frivolous” lawsuits. AFP also endorses candidates who support limiting the rights of plaintiffs to collect damages.

The legislation supported by AFP in Iowa passed because legislators reacted to this one very large court judgment, fearing that more verdicts awarding such high damages would prevent doctors from practicing and force hospitals to close down. But in their belief that the case had been manipulated to create a manufactured crisis calling for tort reform, the doctors at Obstetric and Gynecological (OB/GYN) Associates of Iowa City, who were the defendants, sued their insurance company MMIC — one of the nation’s largest medical malpractice insurers — and its lawyers, claiming that they conspired to refuse to settle the lawsuit even though the plaintiffs (the parents of the child born with brain damage) were willing to do so. 

It’s not the first time MMIC has been accused of refusing to settle a medical malpractice case. In 2019, the insurer was sued for bad faith over a $12-million verdict involving the unnecessary removal of a man’s prostate. That case was dismissed in February 2023.

According to the current lawsuit, MMIC’s motivation was to let the OB/GYN case go to jury trial and hope for such a large judgment that state legislators would be forced to limit huge jury awards for noneconomic damages in the future. 

In fact, at the same time MMIC was representing the OB/GYN doctors, it was simultaneously holding seminars for lawmakers and lobbying for limits on medical malpractice awards. The pending state lawsuit brought by the doctors and clinic — which was forced into bankruptcy by the record-breaking award, even though it was subsequently reduced to $76 million by a judge — claims that Shuttleworth Ingersoll, the law firm MMIC hired, did not represent them and instead delivered on a political favor for the insurance company. 

OB/GYN and its doctors allege that MMIC and its lawyers used them as political pawns to advance their legislation, acted in bad faith, and presented a sham defense.

The lawsuit, brought by the clinic’s and doctors’ new legal counsel, also claims:

The lawsuit also alleges that MMIC wanted to get such a high jury verdict that the defendants would be forced into bankruptcy.

MMIC and its lawyers, according to the lawsuit, “knew that the story of a $97 million verdict and three female OB/GYN physicians having to file bankruptcy and close their practice because of a large jury verdict would give [the insurer] what it needed to convince Iowa lawmakers to vote to pass the cap [on med-mal judgments].” 

AFP Action is not the only Koch-founded group pushing limits on medical malpractice judgments. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has developed dozens of model bills that limit liability for medical malpractice, unsafe products, damage to the environment, and workplace safety. Those bills include one to cap noneconomic damages and one to limit what kind of evidence juries are allowed to hear when considering damages for pain and suffering.

View the entire article at Exposed by CMD

Jury returns $63M verdict after finding Chevron covered up toxic pit on California land

Jury returns $63M verdict after finding Chevron covered up toxic pit on California land

by | Feb 1, 2024 | News

Published 7:42 PM PST, June 8, 2023

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — A California jury has returned a $63 million verdict against Chevron after finding the oil giant covered up a toxic chemical pit on land purchased by a man who built a house on it and was later diagnosed with a blood cancer.

Kevin Wright, who has multiple myeloma, unknowingly built his home directly over the chemical pit near Santa Barbara in 1985, according to his lawsuit.

Starting in 1974, Chevron subsidiary Union Oil Company of California had operated a sump pit for oil and gas production, a process that left the carcinogenic chemical benzene on the property, court papers said.

Wright bought the land and built the house in 1985. Nearly three decades later, he was diagnosed with the cancer that attacks plasma cells in the blood and can be caused by benzene exposure, court documents said.

The jurors in Santa Barbara on Wednesday returned the $63 million verdict, said Jakob Norman, an attorney for Wright. Norman called the case a “blatant example of environmental pollution and corporate malfeasance.”

Chevron said Union Oil Company would appeal the judgment.

“We strongly disagree with the jury’s decisions to award compensatory and punitive damages,” Chevron said in a statement Thursday.

Wright’s cancer is in remission, his attorneys said, but he regularly undergoes chemotherapy treatments to hold the illness at bay.

“They cut corners, and my life was turned upside down as a result,” Wright said in a statement provided by his attorneys. “Chevron’s continued denial of the harm they caused is a shameful reminder that this company values only profits, not people.”

View the entire article at AP News