Lawyers for CAMC, surgeon trade blame in court filings
by admin on 02/04/08 at 12:05 pm
The Charleston Gazette
Hospital wants $25 million verdict lower, or new trial
“The jury saw clearly into the heart and soul of CAMC and took it upon itself to surgically attack the cancer that has taken over this community’s nonprofit hospital,” wrote Hamrick’s lawyer, Richard Walters, in a recent court pleading.
In February, a Kanawha County jury decided that hospital administrators smeared Hamrick’s reputation, awarding him $5 million in compensatory and $20 million in punitive damages.
CAMC wants a judge to reduce the award or grant a new trial.
CAMC lawyer Richard Neely said Tuesday that the hospital shouldn’t have to pay any punitive damages because it’s a charitable hospital and has immunity against such awards.
The state Supreme Court has never affirmed a punitive damages award against a nonprofit hospital, Neely said. CAMC provides 20 percent of all non-reimbursed health care in the state, he said.
Hamrick stands to profit the most from the award while patients will suffer, Neely said, adding that the surgeon makes more money annually than any CAMC executive except Chief Executive Officer David Ramsey.
If the $25 million award is upheld, patients, not CAMC administrators, “will end up paying the bill,” according to Neely.
“Let us assume that the CEO of CAMC is Adolph Hitler, aided and abetted by Joseph Stalin as general counsel, and Benito Mussolini, Pol Pot and Tojo as department heads,” Neely wrote in a reply to Hamrick expected to be filed today in Kanawha Circuit Court. “So what? Will this award come out of their salaries? No. Will this award cause them to be fired? No.”
In court documents, Hamrick’s lawyers say CAMC administrators refuse to admit they altered meeting minutes, changed reports, manipulated resolutions, misled doctors and violated hospital bylaws.
In 2004, Hamrick wanted to insure himself against malpractice claims with $1 million of his own money. CAMC executives balked at the proposal.
In the recent court filing, Hamrick’s lawyers took issue with CAMC leaders’ claims that they “bent over backwards” to accommodate the surgeon so he wouldn’t lose his privileges. But Hamrick was “unwilling to compromise,” hospital executives said.
In response, Hamrick’s lawyers cited a statement from a doctor who testified during the trial that he overheard CAMC Board of Trustees Chairman Richard Sinclair disparage Hamrick by saying, “I hate that f–er.” Sinclair denied making the comment.
Hamrick’s lawyers also criticize CAMC for saying the $25 million award will make it nearly impossible for the hospital to obtain insurance coverage.
“This is nonsense, plain and simple nonsense,” Walters wrote. “CAMC whines that the issue is complicated, but … will have to pay millions of dollars of this judgment.”
That’s exactly what the jury intended, Walters said.
“CAMC simply doesn’t get it,” Walters said in the filing. “The purpose of a punitive damages award is to punish. It’s supposed to hurt.”
Walters also argued that CAMC didn’t take reasonable steps to settle the case. CAMC’s final offer before trial was $800,000 – less than the $1 million Hamrick already had amassed in legal fees, according to the pleading.
During settlement negotiations, CAMC lawyers also insisted Hamrick drop a separate lawsuit in which the physician alleged the hospital routinely violated the state Open Hospital Proceedings Act, according to Walters. Hamrick refused.
In the filing, Hamrick alleges CAMC executives are motivated by profit and greed, and want to control doctors.
“The problem is CAMC will never admit or acknowledge when it is wrong,” Walters wrote. “It is this arrogance and the hospital’s vexatious conduct that ultimately led to the punitive damage award.”
Hamrick’s lawyers also criticized CAMC for including a lengthy list of awards in its request for a new trial, saying the information wasn’t relevant.
“As it has done since the onset of this litigation,” Walters said in the filing, “CAMC wants to close its eyes to the facts of the case and the conduct of its administrators and blame everybody else, including the jury.”
To contact staff writer Eric Eyre, use e-mail or call 348-4869.
