Court Approves Settlements, But Refuses Parties' Request for Confidentiality
In March, I wrote that most of the plaintiffs in the medical malpractice actions against discredited surgeon John King had reached settlements with several of the defendants. Last week, three plaintiffs had their settlements approved by the Circuit Court of Putnam County, West Virginia. What I find interesting is that Judge O. C. Spaulding refused the parties’ request to keep the amounts of the settlements confidential.
Paul J. Nyden wrote about the hearing in last Wednesday’s Charleston Gazette. In denying the parties' request for confidentiality, Judge Spaulding noted the publicity and attention that the cases had generated state-wide and nationally, and said that, “the public has a right to know, were these legitimate cases?”
You can answer that question for yourself. These are the settlements that were approved, according to the article:
- $1,083,384 for the estate of Cora Linville, who died three years after her back surgery resulted in multiple infections;
- $923,585 for the estate of John Higgenbotham, who was 91 when he died. Higgenbotham never woke up after King performed a massive spinal operation on his back; and
- $423,585 for the estate of Leatha Johnson, who died less than three months after King performed the first of four surgeries to repair fractures and counter infections.
Court approval for these settlements was necessary because the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia held in Estate of Postlewait ex rel. Postlewait v. Ohio Valley Medical Center, Inc., 591 S.E.2d 226 (W.Va. 2003), that West Virginia Code § 55-7-7 “clearly contemplates and requires that all compromises of wrongful death actions be submitted to the circuit court for approval.”
Another hearing is scheduled for May 22 for court approval of nine settlements of plaintiffs who were minors when King performed surgery on them.
