San Bernardino jury awards $3.3M in dental practice dispute

A San Bernardino County jury awarded $3.3 million in damages to a dentist who was denied the opportunity to purchase a dental practice, despite having a contractual right of first refusal.

"They essentially wanted to say his right of first refusal was a toothless contract, but the jury felt otherwise," Dr. Christopher Leyster's lawyer, John Rushing, explained. "We argued that the right of first refusal was meaningful. The $2.1 million purchase price doesn't negate future profits. We convinced the jury that fair compensation includes the lost revenue Dr. Leyster would have earned from owning the business."

Rushing, of Rushing McCarl LLP in Santa Monica, said when his client purchased the first of two practices and moved his family across the country from Tennessee to Chino, he secured a right of first refusal in the purchase contract to buy the seller's second practice in nearby Ontario. But the seller, Dr. Linda Tran, sold the Ontario practice without notifying Leyster.

During the trial, Rushing argued that the breach of contract had cost their client a valuable business opportunity. "Our lives are defined by the opportunities we take and the opportunities we miss," Rushing told the jury in his closing argument. "And those of us who have experienced this bitter truth know that nothing costs more than a lost opportunity."

"The important lesson from this case is that when you have a right of first refusal, in a business context, what you're buying is the right to run the business and get the profits from the business," Rushing said in a phone interview.

"The second issue in the case had to do with reimbursement for patients who switched to Dr. Tran's new practice. There was a clause in the contract that required $3,500 reimbursement per patient, and we argued that Dr. Tran breached that provision too," Rushing continued.

The jury agreed, awarding $3.3 million in damages to compensate Leyster for the lost opportunity to purchase and profit from the Ontario practice.

Defense attorney William Buus of the Buus Law Group in Buena Park, declined to comment citing pending motions for a directed verdict. The case is Leyster v. Tran et al., CIV-SB-22-04915, (S.B. Super. Ct., filed Mar. 07, 2022)