Mike Wright, Michael Scivley, and Allen King recently obtained judgment as a matter of law in favor of a family medicine physician and his medical assistant following the trial of a combined personal injury and wrongful death case. The plaintiff claimed the defendants committed medical malpractice for allegedly failing to contact the patient or report an abnormal PSA laboratory result and for failing to refer the patient to a urology specialist for additional workup on a timely basis. The patient was diagnosed 18 months later with advanced metastatic prostate cancer. Suit was commenced during the lifetime of the patient who, unfortunately, succumbed to his disease. Plaintiff presented expert testimony from a family medicine specialist and a urological oncologist seeking to demonstrate that an earlier diagnosis could have resulted in a different/favorable outcome for the patient. The case was tried before a jury for four days. At the conclusion of the plaintiff’s evidence, the defendant moved for judgment as a matter of law. The issues were extensively briefed and argued by the parties. In granting the defendants’ motion, the court determined that the plaintiff failed to meet her burden of proof to establish a breach of the standard of care directly producing the unfortunate outcome and, therefore, held that there was no legally sufficient evidentiary basis for the case to be submitted to the jury.
SDF Attorneys Wright, Scivley & King Win Trial in Combined Wrongful Death/Personal Injury Case
April 15, 2019
