St. Louis Injury Attorney Blog

The Missouri Courts of Appeals issued four recent decisions pertaining to medical malpractice law in Missouri.

The Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District, in St. Louis Missouri, held that a trial court judge taking over the questioning of plaintiffs' expert was in error and prejudicial, and reversed and remanded the case for a new trial. In Watson, et al. v. Tenet Healthsystem, et al., No. 91997, a jury awarded a verdict in plaintiffs' favor for their wrongful death and medical negligence case. Defendants appealed, arguing that there was no evidence of causation. During the trial, the judge asked his own questions of the plaintiffs' expert witness, and after he was done turned the witness over to the defendants for cross examination; the expert never did testify as to causation. However, the Court of Appeals held that an outright reversal on this basis would be unjust considering the trial court judge's behavior in taking over questioning the witness, and instead ordered a new trial.

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A Missouri wrongful death case filed by the family of a teenage boy killed during a police chase has settled.

Missouri residents John and Cheryl Cooper have settled with the Independence Police Department for $275,000 for the death of their son, Christopher Cooper. Christopher was killed by a vehicle involved in a police chase. He was crossing the street on his bike when an automobile being chased by the Independence police struck and killed him. The trial in this wrongful death case was scheduled to begin on Monday, May 3, 2010.

The man who hit Christopher, Wilfredo Pujols, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was charged with second degree murder, DWI, and leaving the scene of an accident.

Christopher's mother, Cheryl, has stated that she plans to lobby for laws regulating police chases, to make them more safe for innocent citizens. Some research finds that at least 350 people are killed each year as a result of a police pursuit. Many more are injured.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/story/E8F9077A9335DC90862577100080B980?OpenDocument

A wrongful death suit has been filed in St. Louis County against the police officers who allegedly pushed a man down a flight of stairs to his death. The family members of Kenneth Hamilton allege that three Overland, Missouri police officers used excessive force by pushing Hamilton down about 11 stairs and that they denied Hamilton medical treatment by leaving his apartment without getting him any medical help.

Hamilton died of a brain injury five days after the St. Louis area police officers allegedly pushed him down the stairs. One Overland officer, Andrew Ringeisen, of Troy, Missouri, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter by the St. Louis County Prosecutor, 10SL-CR02380.

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Wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits have been filed St. Louis by the families of two St. Louis, Missouri area men that were killed in the shooting at ABB Inc. earlier this year. The families have sued the security firm Securitas Security Services and two security guards employed by Securitas for damages for the death and personal injuries of their loved ones. Three people who were injured in the shooting are also part of the lawsuit, and they also brought claims for emotional distress. They are being represented by Edward Hereshewe of Joplin, Missouri.

The lawsuit, filed last month in St. Louis Circuit Court, alleges that the security firm and its employees were negligent by not preventing the shooter, Tim Hendron, from bringing guns into the building, by not subduing him once he was in the building, and by not warning employees. Hendron, of Webster Groves, Missouri, was a disgruntled employee who was part of a class action suit against ABB Inc. over pension plan fees. Hendron came into ABB Inc. the day of the shooting with an assault rifle, two shotguns and a pistol. He killed three people and wounded five others.

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A St. Louis jury awarded Randall Thompson $250,000 for personal injuries he sustained in St. Louis after he fell while skating in Forest Park two years ago. At the time of the fall, Thompson had been skating in Forest Park three times a week for nearly 15 years.

Thompson, 63, fell and hit his head on the trail and sustained a subdural hematoma. He underwent surgery to remove accumulated blood on his brain. Mud had built up on the trail, and a Forest Park maintenance worker testified that mud had a tendency to build up in the spot where Thompson fell. The area was adjacent to the horse stalls, and mud would drain from the stalls after heavy rains. Typically, maintenance crews would shovel the mud off the trail, but they had not done so at the time Thompson fell. There was testimony that this had been an ongoing problem for 30 years.

The attorney for the City of St. Louis argued that it is the skater's responsibility to watch out for dangerous elements on the trail when he is rollerblading. However, the jury did not fully buy this argument, and assessed 15% fault to Thompson, and 85% fault to Forest Park. Thompson's net reward was $212,500.

The truck driver responsible for the 2008 auto accident in St. Louis that killed 3 and injured 14 others was sentenced to one year in jail for the manslaughter charges brought against him. In the summer of 2008, Jeffrey R. Knight was driving on Highway 40 in St. Louis when he reached for his cell phone. Because he was distracted, he did not see that traffic on Highway 40 was stopped. Once he realized traffic was stopped, he was unable to slow his semi truck in time to avoid plowing into traffic.

Knight was released from jail after the judge gave him credit for time served. He had already served 371 days in jail. He plead guilty to the charges against him.

Mark Tiburzi was among those involved in the crash that suffered severe personal injury as a result of the accident. Although he survived, he is unable to walk and talk, and lives in a nursing facility. He was awarded $18 million dollars in a settlement from the trucking company and Knight. However, the family says they have not received any money yet.

There are other unresolved personal injury claims against Knight.

Traffic accidents involving commercial semi trucks can have serious consequences. In 2008, large trucks were involved in 6,866 traffic accidents in Missouri, resulting in 109 deaths and 2,215 injuries.

The Missouri Supreme Court heard argument on April 14, 2010 on whether Section 490.715, RSMo, is constitutional. In medical malpractice and personal injury cases, Section 490.715 creates a rebuttable presumption that the amount actually paid to satisfy the health care provider's bill is the value of the medical treatment rendered.

In Deck v. Teasley, SC90628, the amount of Deck's medical bills from an automobile accident totaled $27,900. However, Medicare paid $9,904.28, which the health care providers accepted as satisfaction of the bills. Deck was not allowed by the trial court to present evidence of the $27,900 bill, and was instead only allowed to present to the jury the $9,904.28 which was paid by Medicare. Deck's expert was prepared to testify that the $27,900 was a fair and reasonable amount.

Deck's constitutionality argument is centered on the assertion that House Bill 393, the 2005 tort reform bill, did not contain one subject clearly expressed in its title as required by the Constitution.

Section 490.715 also raises the issue of the right to a trial by jury. This statute essentially penalizes those who purchased health insurance or who had Medicare pay their medical bills.

St. Louis area police officer, Christine L. Miller, has settled the wrongful death lawsuit filed against her by the families of the four deceased passengers involved in the traffic accident caused by Miller while she was driving drunk in March 2009.

Miller, a Sunset Hills police officer, was off-duty when she had been drinking at O'Leary's Pub on South Lindbergh the night of March 21, 2009. After leaving the pub, she drove her car into oncoming traffic in Des Peres Missouri, striking the automobile carrying the four deceased. O'Leary's Pub was also a party to the lawsuit, for its role in serving alcohol to Miller. The total amount of the settlement is $2.25 million dollars, the limit of Miller's and O'Leary's insurance policies. The families of the deceased will each receive $331,375.

Under Missouri's dram shop law, a bar can be held liable for serving alcohol to an intoxicated person which later results in the death or injury of a person, but the burden of proof is "clear and convincing evidence" which can be a difficult burden for a plaintiff to meet. Had the plaintiffs taken this case to trial, they would have had a high burden of proof to overcome to succeed in a case against O'Leary's.

Miller is still awaiting trial on the four charges of manslaughter that are pending against her. A survivor of the crash has also brought a personal injury action against Miller, which is still unresolved.

The Missouri Supreme Court will determine whether requiring medical malpractice plaintiffs to file an affidavit from a "legally qualified health care provider" in support of their claim is constitutional under Section 538.225, RSMo. Under Section 538.225, a Missouri medical malpractice plaintiff must file an affidavit with the court stating that a legally qualified health care provider has provided him with a written opinion that states that the defendant did not use the care a reasonably prudent and careful health care provider would have under similar circumstances and that this failure caused plaintiff's damages. Under this statute, a "legally qualified health care provider" must practice in the same specialty as the defendant.

Spradling et al. v. SSM Health Care St. Louis, et al., challenges Section 538.225, and plaintiffs argue that the trial court's interpretation of the statute is unconstitutional. Spradling brought medical malpractice claims against defendants for surgery on her back which left her paralyzed. The surgery was performed by Dr. Sprich, a neurosurgeon. In 2009, SSM Medical Group moved to dismiss Spradling's medical malpractice claims against it, arguing that plaintiff's affidavit did not meet to the statutory requirements because the opinion was written by a radiologist, not a neurosurgeon like Sprich. Therefore, SSM argued that plaintiff's health care provider was not a "legally qualified health care provider" as defined by Section 538.225 because Sprich is a neurosurgeon, and the radiologist did not practice in substantially the same specialty as Sprich. The trial court sustained the motion to dismiss.

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