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Mike Wright, John McCall, and Larry Fantroy obtained a judgment as a matter of law on October 19, 2012 in Dallas County Circuit Court following a five day trial of a medical malpractice and wrongful death claim against a general surgeon. The case involved allegations of negligent failure to diagnose and appropriately treat a perforated duodenal ulcer. Although the plaintiff’s retained expert witness had testified extensively in deposition that the defendant fell below the standard of care in his evaluation of the patient so as to cause a delay in diagnosis & corrective surgery, the expert was disqualified when evidence from his background investigation proved, without dispute, that he had never performed the surgery at issue in his career as a Board Certified general surgeon. In ruling that the plaintiff’s expert was not in “the same general line of practice” as the defendant, by his concession that he had not himself performed the operation which he testified was mandatory, the Court observed that the expert also admitted (in contradiction of his deposition testimony) that the defendant’s approach to the patient’s care was, in fact, a method of care recognized as being within the standard of care for general surgery. Accordingly, the Court entered Judgment as a matter of law for the defendants & the case was dismissed.