.png)
Retired Senior Trial Partner Sean F.X. Dugan and Partner Michael B. Manning successfully secured a defense verdict on behalf of MCB’s client hospital in a complex medical malpractice action with very significant damages exposure. Defense of the action required them to refute numerous claims regarding the improper administration of psychotropic medications and failure to recommend the appropriate follow-up care post discharge. Following the defense verdict, Appellate Partner Barbara D. Goldberg and Mr. Manning successfully defended against the plaintiff’s motion to set aside the verdict in the Trial Court. Most recently, Ms. Goldberg successfully defended the case on appeal, obtaining an affirmance of the Judgment entered pursuant to the defense verdict, and concluding a case that has been ongoing since 2014.
The action was a wrongful death action in which the plaintiff alleged that the psychiatric care provided by MCB’s client Hospital during a series of admissions from 2008 through a final hospitalization in 2012 contributed to a suicide attempt and eventual death of the decedent. Among other claims, the plaintiff argued that a continuous course of negligent treatment tolled the statute of limitations, so that every admission during this time period was potentially at issue. In March 2020,following a jury trial, the jury found that there was no continuous course of treatment, thereby eliminating the plaintiff’s allegations of malpractice for all but the final hospitalization. With respect to that hospitalization, the jury found that the Hospital did not depart from good and accepted medical practice. Accordingly, MCB secured a full defense verdict. Thereafter, the plaintiff moved pursuant to CPLR 4404(a) to set aside the jury verdict in the interest of justice or as contrary to the weight of the evidence and for a new trial. In an Order dated June 29, 2020, the Supreme Court denied the motion. On November 6, 2020, the Court entered a Judgment in favor of the defendant Hospital and against the plaintiff dismissing the complaint.
Thereafter, the plaintiff appealed from the Judgment, challenging multiple evidentiary rulings and claiming the verdict was contrary to the weight of evidence. Ms. Goldberg skillfully handled all aspects of the appeal, resulting in a full affirmance of the Judgment. In a Decision and Order dated May 28, 2025, the Appellate Division, Second Department, found that the trial court properly exercised its discretion with respect to several evidentiary rulings challenged by the plaintiff; that another evidentiary ruling had no impact on the outcome; and that the verdict finding that MCB’s client Hospital met the standard of care was supported by a fair interpretation of the evidence.