Subject:  Verdict in burned baby case |
Author:
Chris
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Date Posted: 05/29/05 2:12pm
In reply to:
Chris
's message, "Re: Update on Beaumont Hospital case" on 04/16/05 5:20pm
$8.2 million awarded in burned baby case
But state cap means boy to get much less
May 28, 2005
BY L.L. BRASIER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
A jury awarded a Macomb Township boy $8.2 million Friday for the pain and suffering he endured when he was burned in a hospital fire seven years ago, but the child will see only $575,000 because state law caps such jury awards.
The verdict in the case of Nathan Laporte, 7, was an enormous victory for Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, and a bitter loss for the Laporte family.
The Laportes had been seeking more than $250 million in damages, saying the fire had caused Nathan serious, lifetime disabilities. It was also a slap at malpractice attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who represented the Laportes and is known for big money judgments and a sometimes bombastic courtroom demeanor.
"I was expecting divine justice for my son," said Nathan's mother, Shelley Laporte, as she struggled with tears following the verdict. "I have no idea what we'll do now."
Beaumont Hospital attorney Keefe Brooks, who had argued that while the fire had harmed the child, it had not caused him long-term damage, said, "This verdict can only be read as a complete vindication of the hospital ... that the burns had nothing to do with Nathan's adverse outcome."
The jury declined to award the Laportes any money for earlier medical bills or for future lost wages for when Nathan becomes an adult. And jurors awarded Nathan only $200,000 for future medical costs. There are no limits for awards in those categories.
Friday's verdict came shortly before noon after a contentious six-weeks of testimony and 2 1/2 days of jury deliberations. The jury -- three men and four women -- sat through 27 witnesses and 70 exhibits.
Born 16 weeks premature, Nathan was 11 weeks old in October 1997 when a doctor in the neonatal unit at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak set him on fire while trying to use a cauterizing tool in his oxygen tent. Nathan, one of quadruplets born to Craig and Shelley Laporte, remained hospitalized for another two years, heavily medicated and on a ventilator, while his brothers and sister were released within months. Today, he uses a wheelchair, is dependent on a ventilator and has brain damage.
In sorting through the evidence, jurors determined that while Nathan had suffered from the fire, his extensive physical problems were already present or developing before he was burned. Nathan, who weighed less than 2 pounds at birth, was suffering from a lung disease and had fought a life-threatening infection before the fire.
After the verdict, jury foreman Dan Myatt said that the nurses' notations in Nathan's daily hospital records noting "a grim prognosis" helped convince him and fellow jurors that "a lot of the damage was done before the fire."
Myatt said there was little disagreement among jurors from the beginning in deciding that the fire had not caused long-term damage.
In deciding on the $8-million award for pain and suffering, jurors considered what Nathan endured in the fire and the two months following, as the burns healed, and the subsequent surgeries to repair the scars. But the suffering from the fire stopped there, they said. Jurors, under Michigan law, were not told until after the verdict that pain and suffering awards are capped at $375,000 under laws passed during Gov. John Engler's administration. Fieger was not present for the verdict. His associate, Ven Johnson, said such caps are a perversion of the legal system.
Johnson said he would argue in motions before Oakland County Circuit Judge Gene Schnelz that the state-mandated cap allows for another $300,000, which would bring the total money award to $875,000.
Those motions are expected to be filed within weeks.
Contact L.L. BRASIER at 248-858-2262 or brasier@freepress.com
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