Verdicts

A Pennsylvania court has determined a medical malpractice plaintiff who agreed to limit a doctor's liability to the extent of his insurance coverage did not thereby release that defendant from the plaintiff's suit against multiple defendants. Moses Taylor Hosp. v. Carnevale, PICS Case No. 12-0276 (C.P. Lackawanna Dec. 7, 2011).

The plaintiff sued several defendants for medical malpractice, including physician Kevin McLaughlin and Scranton, PA's Moses Taylor Hospital. McLaughlin filed for bankruptcy, which triggered an automatic stay of lawsuit and collection proceedings against him. The plaintiff, wishing to go forward with the malpractice case, agreed to limit McLaughlin's liability to the amount covered by his medical malpractice insurance, provided the bankruptcy court would lift the stay to permit the malpractice suit to proceed. The remaining defendants objected, asserting that by limiting the doctor's liability, the plaintiff had increased their potential vicarious liability damages. Thus, they claimed, the plaintiff's agreement with the doctor should be deemed to have released them from liability as well. The court was not impressed with this reasoning, finding instead that “[t]he unambiguous language of the claimant's agreement not to execute against the debtor's personal assets cannot possibly be construed as a release of that tortfeasor or any other malpractice defendant or result in a reduction of their joint tortfeasor exposure.”