Verdicts, Settlements and Judgments
Trial Advocate
Craig A. Sargent Peter W. Pryor
Court
Denver District Court
Case Type
Trial Advocacy
Client
Insurance Company
Issues
Peter Pryor and Craig Sargent recently had a jury return a defense verdict in a multi-million dollar insurance bad faith case. The bad faith case arose out of an underlying medical malpractice case alleging failure to diagnose lung cancer leading to the patient’s death. The widow brought a lawsuit against the physician and the jury returned a plaintiff’s verdict in excess of the physician’s insurance coverage. Following the verdict in the underlying case, the professional liability insurance company tried to resolve the case and offered to pay over $1,000,000 over and above its policy limits. Plaintiff failed to make any effort to try and resolve the case and instead instituted collection actions, forcing the physician into bankruptcy. The widow then purchased the bad faith claim out of the bankruptcy estate and brought the case against the insurance company for bad faith and other related claims. Plaintiff alleged that the insurance company acted in bad faith in failing to settle the case before trial, failed to properly carry out its duty of good faith and fair dealing to its insured in numerous ways, failed to obtain the insured consent to settle, failed to adequately inform the insured physician of the risk of going to trial and the likelihood of a plaintiff verdict, failing to offer policy limits to resolve the case during jury deliberations in the underlying case when the jury asked for a calculator, and then failure to resolve the case and pay the full amount of the judgment after the verdict and entry of judgment. After a two-week jury trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the insurance company and against Plaintiff.
Trial Advocate
Peter W. Pryor Kevin P. Ahearn
Court
Denver District Court
Case Type
Medical Malpractice
Client
Vascular Surgeon
Issues
In this wrongful death case, a 51 year old male underwent thoracic outlet syndrome surgery for relief of chronic pain in the left upper extremity. The patient died on the operating table during an attempt to drain an infected lymph collection in the neck and an infected pleural effusion.
The patient suffered a massive hemorrhage due to unexpected movement of the subclavian artery and subclavian vein from their positions in the first operation. Despite appropriate resuscitative efforts, the patient suffered anoxic brain injury and was eventually taken off of life support.
The two grown sons of the deceased claimed approximately 4 million dollars in lost business opportunities due to the death of their father. Mr. Pryor and Mr. Ahearn established that the surgeon's misidentification of the artery and vein, while an admitted mistake, was not substandard. After eight days of evidence, the jury returned a verdict for the surgeon after 20 minutes of deliberation.
Trial Advocate
Peter W. Pryor
Court
Denver District Court
Case Type
Medical Malpractice
Client
Neurosurgeon
Issues
This very complicated brain surgery case involved surgical approaches to the vestibular nerve through the posterior fossa. Plaintiffs claimed that the neurosurgeon negligently operated in the wrong region of the brain, causing a myriad of complex neurologic and psychologic problems. X-rays, medical records, diagrams, surveillance video, and three-dimensional imagery supported the conclusion that the physician’s care was appropriate. Given the allegations and potential damages, Pryor Johnson Carney Karr Nixon’s advocacy protected the neurosurgeon from tremendous personal exposure.
Trial Advocate
Scott S. Nixon
Court
Denver District Court
Case Type
Medical Malpractice
Client
Emergency Medicine Physician
Issues
The plaintiff alleged that the physician failed to diagnose an ischemic stroke in the emergency department. Mr. Nixon was successful in persuading the jury not only that the physician was not negligent in failing to diagnose ischemic stroke at the time of the patient’s presentation, but also that administration of thrombolytic therapy would have been unlikely to have made a substantial difference in the patient’s outcome, and therefore any alleged delay in recognition and treatment did not cause harm.
Trial Advocate
Peter W. Pryor
Court
Denver District Court
Case Type
Medical Malpractice
Client
Pediatric Neurosurgeon
Issues
This matter was tried twice due to a remand by the Colorado Court of Appeals. This challenging case required the jury to quickly understand sophisticated neurosurgical techniques for the control of epileptic seizures. Twice charged with overcoming the emotions any person would feel for a pediatric patient suffering from permanent paralysis of a right arm due to what she contended was improperly performed brain surgery, Pryor Johnson Carney Karr Nixon secured two defense verdicts in favor of the neurosurgeon, once in 2000 and again in 2005 on retrial.
