Summary Judgment Granted

Partners Robert Gibson, Katherin Crossling and Of Counsel Jason Barrer and Greg Freedman recently secured summary judgment dismissal in a complex medical malpractice case on behalf of a major hospital system and individual nurse. The case involved the care and treatment of a woman who presented to the hospital for treatment of virus-type symptoms. She was treated and discharged. Several hours later, she stabbed her eight-year-old son in the abdomen based on a newly developed psychiatric delusion. The case was brought on behalf of the son and the grandmother and involved highly sympathetic and emotionally-charged issues. HPM&B secured summary judgment as to all claims on the threshold issue of whether a duty was owed to the son and grandmother who were not patients of the defendants. The Court determined that no duty was owed but, importantly, also held that even if a duty was owed to the plaintiffs, the defendants established via their expert affirmations that the care was entirely consistent with the standard of care and at all times appropriate. Further, the Court found that the defendants’ care was not a proximate cause of the infant’s claimed injuries. The defendants successfully established that plaintiffs’ experts affirmations were based on inadmissible hearsay evidence and that they were speculative and conclusory. Congratulations to our team on this significant summary judgment victory!