Pennsylvania Superior Court Upholds $2.5 Million Verdict Against UPMC
Posted on Mar 24, 2010
The jury awarded the Rettger family $2.5 million, but awarded $0 to the Estate of Michael Rettger for Michael’s lost earnings, despite the fact that at the time of his death Michael was a highly successful accountant in the Pittsburgh offices of Ernst & Young.
On December 12, 2008, Judge Timothy P. O’Reilly of the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, who had heard all the evidence, found that the verdict of $0 for Michael’s lost earnings was a miscarriage of justice and awarded the Estate of Michael Rettger a new trial solely on the question of Michael’s Rettger’s lost earnings. UPMC appealed this ruling and a host of others made by Judge O’Reilly to the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
In a strongly-worded opinion filed on March 17, 2010, the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed both the jury’s award of $2.5 million to the Rettger family and the Allegheny County Court’s award of a new trial limited to the question of the amount of Michael Rettger’s lost earnings as a result of UPMC’s medical malpractice.