Analyses of recent Georgia medical malpractice rulings. Each post pairs a short summary of what the court held with notes on why the holding matters and how it lands in similar cases.
The Court of Appeals held that a post-mortem pacemaker analysis contradicting the plaintiff's cardiac-causation theory was responsive to broad discovery and should have been disclosed. The fee award was vacated, but § 9-15-14(b) fees remain possible on remand.
The Georgia Supreme Court denied certiorari in Ga. Bone & Joint Surgeons, P.C. v. Keel. Justice Bethel's concurrence explains that Condra v. Atlanta Orthopaedic Group does not require a personal-practices jury instruction and that pattern-instruction status alone cannot decide whether a requested charge should be given.
The Court of Appeals reversed dismissal where the trial court demanded orthopedic post-operative experience from a § 9-11-9.1 expert. At the pleading stage, the question is whether the expert's experience is relevant to the alleged omission, not whether the expert shares the defendant's specialty.
The Court of Appeals reversed dismissal of a failure-to-diagnose prostate-cancer complaint. The pleadings did not affirmatively prove the limitations defense, so the new-injury exception belonged in discovery and summary judgment, not Rule 12(b)(6).
The Court of Appeals reversed a defense verdict after the trial court refused to strike a venireperson whose firm represented MagMutual, the defendants' malpractice insurer. The opinion preserves the civil rule that forced peremptory use plus exhaustion is presumptively harmful.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia reversed summary judgment for a hospital and physician group, holding that corporate healthcare entities were not auxiliary emergency management workers under GEMA and that Georgia's Pandemic Business Safety Act did not apply retroactively to April 2020 care.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed a defense verdict for Metro Ambulance Services, holding that exclusion of rebuttal expert testimony was harmless and that paramedic treatment decisions required professional judgment rather than negligence-per-se instructions.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia vacated a $13.7 million attorney-fee award in a medical malpractice case, holding that OCGA 9-11-68 does not authorize fees for appellate work or other legal services performed after the initial entry of judgment in the trial court.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed attorney-fee awards against a plaintiff who voluntarily dismissed a premature abusive-litigation suit, holding that anti-SLAPP fees and OCGA 9-15-14 fees remained available after dismissal.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed summary judgment for an obstetrician, holding that a graphic verbal description of a stillborn delivery did not support intentional infliction of emotional distress and that negligent infliction claims were barred by Georgia's impact rule.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed summary judgment for an emergency-physician staffing company, holding that the physician was an independent contractor because the company did not control the time, manner, or method of her medical work.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia reversed summary judgment for Emory Healthcare, holding that conflicting testimony about which IV site was used and expert testimony based on differential diagnosis created jury questions in a Dilantin extravasation case.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed a defense verdict in an emergency-room malpractice case, holding that OCGA 51-1-4's definition of gross negligence applies under the ER statute and that the jury instructions properly required proof of gross negligence in at least one alleged way.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed a medical-malpractice verdict arising from a child's fatal button-battery ingestion, holding that a radiologist's timing opinion was admissible even though one part of the opinion involved uncertainty about the battery's charge level.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed a $6.5 million medical-malpractice judgment and a $1.82 million attorney-fee award, holding that expert testimony on understaffing and ACLS response supported causation and that the trial court could consider a contingency-fee agreement when awarding OCGA 9-11-68 fees.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed summary judgment for Emory Healthcare, holding that the plaintiffs' expert-nurse affidavits failed to attach referenced medical records and did not establish qualifications to opine on causation from delayed detection of a neonatal IV infiltration.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia reversed denial of a hospital's motion to dismiss, holding that allegations of a 12-hour failure to restart Heparin during a COVID-19 admission did not plead gross negligence under the Georgia COVID-19 Pandemic Business Safety Act.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed a verdict against an emergency physician, holding that expert testimony supported a finding of gross negligence where critical stroke and dissection information was not communicated to the on-call neurologist.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia allowed property-damage claims based on environmental-consultant testimony but reversed the denial of summary judgment on personal-injury claims, holding that the plaintiff's treating physician was not qualified to prove toxic-tort specific causation.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed denial of a motion to dismiss a medical-malpractice renewal action, applying emergency-order tolling to the statute of repose and holding that later-paid federal dismissal fees did not defeat renewal where the amount was not yet determined.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed a defense verdict in a sepsis-related medical-malpractice case, while cautioning trial courts against using exceptional-circumstances foreseeability language in future malpractice jury charges.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed dismissal of a medical-malpractice renewal complaint filed outside the five-year repose period, holding that alleged concealment did not support equitable estoppel where the plaintiffs had filed a timely initial action.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed a nearly $2 million attorney-fee award under OCGA 9-11-68, holding that the plaintiff's offer of settlement was clear enough to identify the offeror's capacities and the claims to be resolved.
The Court of Appeals vacated summary judgment in a malpractice renewal action, holding that the renewal statute does not defeat the five-year statute of repose but that the trial court must consider COVID-19 judicial-emergency tolling under Golden.
The Court of Appeals affirmed a $15 million verdict after a bladder-perforation death, rejecting challenges to pain-and-suffering instructions, preexisting-condition instructions, and the trial court's refusal to order remittitur.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia affirmed summary judgment for a physician and his employer, holding that a patient's medical malpractice claim for long-term steroid complications was time-barred because the statute of limitation began to run when symptoms first manifested, rather than when treatment ended.
The Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of a guardian's malpractice claims, applying OCGA § 9-3-73(b)'s no-tolling rule for mental incompetence and holding that the complaint alleged professional negligence, not ordinary negligence.
The Georgia Court of Appeals vacated a trial court's dismissal of a legal-malpractice complaint against an attorney and remanded for reconsideration, holding that the trial court erred by ruling on a dispositive motion filed by counsel after disqualifying that same counsel on conflict-of-interest grounds.
The Court of Appeals reversed partial summary judgment for malpractice plaintiffs, holding that plaintiffs must prove each element, cannot shift the burden to the defendant, and cannot obtain rulings on duty and breach without fair notice.
The Court of Appeals affirmed a defense verdict for Eastside Medical Center, holding that any error in admitting a co-defendant doctor's settlement was harmless because the record and special verdict form showed no hospital liability.
The Court of Appeals affirmed a $4.5 million malpractice verdict, holding that a juror's insurance comment and disability-benefit testimony gave the trial court discretion to instruct jurors not to consider insurance or other benefits.
The Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for emergency physicians, holding that a psychiatric patient's accidental drowning three days after discharge was too remote in time, place, and mechanism to establish proximate cause.
The Court of Appeals revived a hospital battery claim based on an alleged forged surgical-consent signature, while affirming dismissal of medical-negligence and promissory-estoppel claims for lack of an expert affidavit and indefiniteness.
The Supreme Court of Georgia transferred a medical-malpractice tolling appeal, holding that its exclusive constitutional jurisdiction was not triggered because the trial court relied on Deen without distinctly ruling on a novel constitutional question.
