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Fort Wayne Indiana Personal Injury Lawyer and Attorney Blog

Judge Rejects Request to Lower $15M Med-Mal Jury Award

By Jack H. FarnbauchNovember 13, 2018

In a recent decision in the Southern District of Indiana, the Chief Judge denied the defendants’ motions to reduce or amend a $15M judgment or for a new trial after a jury in June found in favor of Courtney and Brian Webster after a four-day trial. The jury found Center for Diagnostic Imaging, Inc., of Carmel, doing business as CDI Indiana LLC, was responsible for the conduct of a radiologist who failed to identify a tumor after Courtney Webster underwent a CT scan in November 2014.

In a case reported on this blog earlier,  Courtney and Brian Webster v. CDI Indiana, LLC, the Websters sued Minnesota-based CDI in October 2016, claiming a tumor went undiagnosed until May 2016, when Courtney Webster was diagnosed with stage 4 rectal cancer that has a survival rate of about 10 percent over five years. CDI argued to the jury that the radiologist who failed to properly read Webster’s CT scan was in independent contractor not subject to CDI’s control. 

“The jury in this matter found that CDI had failed to give meaningful notice to Ms. Webster that it was not the provider of radiology services before the treatment, and that the services were being provided by a physician who was an independent contractor and not subject to the control and supervision of CDI,” Magnus-Stinson wrote. “In addition, despite a complex corporate arrangement which CDI’s own representative admitted was ‘Byzantine,’ … the jury determined that Ms. Webster reasonably believed that…the radiology services were being rendered by CDI or its employee. The Court finds no reason to vacate or alter the jury’s determination in this matter… .”

“As for CDI’s general argument that the award is ‘monstrously excessive,’ … this Court cannot and does not find that awards of $14,000,000 and $1,000,000 respectively for the loss of 36.2 years of life expectancy and consortium of a formerly vibrant, competent, and engaged wife, mother, and professional woman is excessive in the least,” Magnus-Stinson said. “As such, the Court rejects CDI’s request” to reduce the damages award.

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