© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden
(Jan. 21) – Lawyers for a North Dallas neurologist say they will ask the Texas Supreme Court to reinstate a $10.7 million jury verdict favoring their client in a case accusing a fellow physician and a business associate of breaching their fiduciary duties in their joint ownership and operation of two medical imaging centers in Plano.
Prominent Dallas trial lawyer Frank Branson said Wednesday he plans to appeal the Fifth District Court of Appeals’ decision last week to throw out the $10.7 million verdict from 2012. The Dallas appeals court ruled that the trial judge made critical errors during the trial that unfairly and negatively impacted the jury’s decision against them.
Branson’s client, Dr. Erwin Cruz, accused two co-investors – Dr. Michael Taba and Mehrdad Ghani – of negligence and fraud in the management and eventual dissolution of two medical facilities, including North Dallas Medical Imaging. Cruz claimed his partners kept information from him about the dire financial situation of the centers.
Leaders in the medical and legal communities have closely monitored the litigation because, they say, there are scores of similar business disputes pending throughout Texas that pit doctors against doctors when their jointly-owned private medical centers struggle financially.
In 2012, a Dallas jury ruled in favor of Cruz, awarding him $2.9 million in actual damages and $7.8 million in punitive damages. The judge, citing state laws capping punitive damages, later reduced the entire judgment to $4.7 million.
Ghani and Taba appealed. The appeals court found that the trial judge erred when he ruled as a matter of law that Cruz was a partner, not just an investor and when the judge granted summary judgment to Cruz, finding that the evidence overwhelmingly proved that Cruz was unaware of the financial difficulties of the medical center and the decision of Ghani and Taba to close it down.
Both issues were questions for the jury, the appeals court ruled, and the judge’s mistake likely impacted the jury verdict.
Eric Stahl, a lawyer with the Law Offices of Frank Branson, said if they are unsuccessful in convincing the state supreme court to reinstate the $10.7 million verdict, they will definitely retry the case.
“If this case goes back for a new trial, it will be the same evidence as in the first trial,” Stahl said. “There will now just be two more questions to be answered by the jury instead of the judge.”
Branson, in an interview with The Texas Lawbook, said “there’s no reason we can’t get the same verdict again.
“We may well get more damages for our client,” he said.
Please read The Texas Lawbook’s article on the appeals court decision.
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