Top Plaintiffs' Verdicts by Dollar: McKnight v. Catholic Healthcare West

Beverly Hills attorney Conal Doyle's first major victory in this suit came well before the verdict, whose nearly $27 million medical malpractice award was the biggest in Kern County history.

In the pretrial phase, Doyle was able to establish that the medical technician did not fall under the definition of a health care provider described by the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act of 1975.

The plaintiff, Charlene McKnight, is now a paraplegic after spinal surgery.

The defendants are a technician who operated machinery that monitors nerve signals during surgery and the person who trained him. The case arose from the failure of these technicians to report a loss in spinal signals to a surgeon, Doyle said.

The court agreed with Doyle that the law, which limits noneconomic damages to $250,000 in medical malpractice suits, did not apply to them. McKnight v. Catholic Healthcare West, S-1500-CV-269628 SPC (Kern County Super Ct., filed Feb. 18, 2010).

"Quite simply, the defendants were not enumerated in the statute as medical providers," Doyle said. "That was the big legal issue in the case."

James Rogers, defense attorney for one defendant, is appealing the MICRA ruling and his motion for a new trial, or judgment notwithstanding the verdict, is scheduled to be heard in early February.

"I believe the court committed error in finding that MICRA does not apply. I have a very strong belief that the court of appeal will reverse that ruling," he said.

Late in the trial, the defense called to the stand a neurosurgeon whose testimony Doyle said he was able to turn against them.

"I demonstrated that almost everything they'd been arguing was incorrect," he said. "The defense was taking positions that were contradicted by their own expert."

- CHASE SCHEINBAUM

<!-- Top Plaintiffs' Verdicts by Dollar: McKnight v. Catholic Healthcare West -->