Heartland Nursing Home and its parent company, ManorCare Inc., have asked a circuit judge to review a $90.5 million verdict against it in an abuse and neglect case.
Charleston attorney Brian Glasser, hired by the care facility to handle any post-trial motions and appeals, said he filed a motion with Kanawha Circuit Judge Paul Zakaib Tuesday to consider whether the verdict complies with a state law capping such damages.
That law, enacted in 2003, sought to limit monetary awards in medical liability lawsuits to $500,000 and also limit punitive damages. But whether the recent case, which prompted a jury to grant a much larger compensation, fits the intention of the law is up for debate.
Glasser believes the law applies and will ask Zakaib to award the family of Dorothy Douglas not $90.5 million, but $500,000 plus an adjustment for inflation and a punitive damage percentage of that.
The jury reached its verdict Aug. 4 after two weeks of testimony concerning the care given to Douglas while she was a patient at Heartland in Kanawha City two years ago. The family contended Douglas was deprived of proper hydration and that led tube to her death.
Zakaib has not yet ordered a judgment on the jury's verdict and has scheduled a hearing Oct. 18 to hear post-trial motions, including Glasser's.
Glasser said, "Both parties say the caps somehow affect the verdict. They are saying 20 percent of the compensatory award is capped, and I'm saying all of it is capped."
Huntington attorney Paul Farrell, president of the West Virginia Association for Justice, whose members are plaintiff's attorneys, said the verdict has been discussed a lot recently in legal circles.
沒有留言:
張貼留言