The Georgia Supreme Court recently reversed a decision by a Bibb County judge to slash a wrongful death verdict from $29.25 million to $350,000.
The case arose from the death of April S. Clark, a 41-year-old wife and mother of four children who underwent a laparoscopic hysterectomy in June 2019. According to court records, complications arose during the procedure when her bowel was perforated. The injury went undetected and Clark was discharged from the hospital. The symptoms she had developed after the surgery worsened in the days following the procedure.
Evidence presented at trial showed that Clark repeatedly sought medical attention after the surgery, reporting severe abdominal pain and other signs consistent with a bowel injury. She deteriorated rapidly due to an infection and was ultimately transferred to another hospital. There, surgeons discovered extensive damage and sepsis. Though lifesaving efforts were made, Clark died approximately two weeks after the initial surgery.
When the family of Clark sued, the lawsuit alleged that the doctors failed to recognize and treat the bowel perforation, resulting in preventable complications that ultimately caused Clark’s death. The doctors denied liability and maintained that they met the applicable standard of care. Two of the doctors settled prior to the trial.
At the conclusion of the trial in 2024, however, a jury found in favor of Clark’s family and awarded the following:
- $29.25 million for the full value of Clark’s life
- $2.5 million for conscious pain and suffering, and
- $1.7 million for medical expenses
After the verdict, the doctors argued that Georgia’s medical malpractice damages cap under law limited noneconomic damages to $350,000. The trial court agreed and reduced the wrongful death award to that amount.
The Georgia Supreme Court, however, disagreed in a recent ruling.
In a mid-June ruling, the state’s high court ruled that a statutory cap on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases cannot be applied to reduce a wrongful death verdict. The ruling from the court restores a hefty jury award exceeding $29 million.
Chief Justice Nels Peterson wrote the lengthy opinion handed down last week. The Court reaffirmed its landmark 2010 decision in Atlanta Oculoplastic Surgery, P.C. v. Nestlehutt, which held that applying statutory caps to jury-awarded noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases violates Georgia’s constitutional right to trial by jury.
Rather than deciding whether a damages cap on wrongful death claims is constitutional, the Court concluded that the statute cannot function as written after Nestlehutt. Because some noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases cannot constitutionally be capped, the Court said applying the statute only to certain categories of damages would require courts to rewrite the law. That’s something only the General Assembly can do, the Court wrote.
The Bibb County court was also ordered to consider a separate argument made by the doctors on appeal in seeking a Motion for a New Trial.
The decision is expected to have significant implications for medical malpractice and wrongful death litigation across Georgia. The case drew numerous friend-of-the-court briefs from business groups, healthcare organizations, trial lawyers, the Georgia Attorney General, and parties involved in other pending wrongful death lawsuits.
