Ben Fenton, Dennis Lee and Randy Hsieh successfully represented an anesthesiologist in a reversal handed down by the Fifth Appellate District Court. The anesthesiologist had unsuccessfully sued Kern Medical Center, and subsequently appealed the ruling stating the trial court erred in modifying or refusing to give plaintiffs’ proposed special jury instructions and excluding plaintiffs’ expert witness. The key aspects of the case came down to the terms of a written instrument, which needed to be interpreted by the plaintiff’s expert.
Fenton Jurkowitz Law Group argued that expert testimony was needed to discuss the extrinsic differences between staff privileges and physician protections. The Court of Appeal concluded that, had the expert testimony not been excluded, there was a reasonable chance the jury would have rendered a verdict more favorable to plaintiffs, thus reversal of the judgment was warranted.
The Defendants and Respondents Kern Medical Center and the County of Kern were represented by Hall, Hieatt, & Connely.
