Subject:  Court sides with woman/disabled son, they get settlement money |
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Date Posted: 04/ 5/06 5:47pm
Court sides with woman, disabled son
They get to take settlement money
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
James F. McCarty - Plain Dealer Reporter
A Cleveland mother and her permanently disabled son have won the right to take Ohio's largest medical malpractice verdict ever awarded to their new home in Michigan.
The 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals blocked a Cuyahoga County judge's attempt to control $30 million that a jury awarded to Regina Harris, 36, and her 18-year-old son, Walter Hollins Jr., who was brain-damaged during delivery.
For now, the appeals court's decision applies specifically to a $1.5 million payment to Harris and Hollins by University Hospitals of Cleveland, which settled out-of-court with the mother and son before trial in 2004.
But attorneys said they expect the appeals court ruling also will apply to the $30 million judgment, which remains unpaid while the now-closed Mt. Sinai Medical Center and Harris' doctor seek to overturn the verdict on appeal.
The decision came as a blow to Probate Judge John E. Corrigan, who had hoped to supervise disbursal of the $30 million windfall, plus an additional $50 million in post-judgment interest and the $1.5 million already paid.
Corrigan fired Hollins' former guardian and appointed his own handpicked choice, Fred Nance of Squire Sanders & Dempsey. He also accused Harris' lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger, of orchestrating the mother and son's move to Michigan to take the case away from him, and to give it to a judge Fieger hoped would be more acquiescent to his wishes.
Fieger said Corrigan overstepped his authority when he tried to keep the case in Ohio.
"It was shocking to me how he was trying to penalize my client because of his personal animosity toward me," Fieger said Monday. "He called his court the State of Cleveland' and made it seem as if he was a fiefdom unto himself."
Corrigan did not return a call for comment.
Harris said she moved with her son to Detroit last year specifically to escape Corrigan, whom she accused of being racist and biased against her. In sworn statements, she said the judge caressed her cheek and complimented her looks in a manner that intimidated her.
Corrigan denied Harris' allegations in an interview last October and in a letter to the Ohio Supreme Court. He accused Fieger and his client of concocting the incidents as part of a scheme to intimidate him.
Appeals Court Judge Anthony Calabrese Jr. cited Corrigan's suspicions of Fieger in a dissent opinion. He noted that a Michigan probate judge approved attorneys' fees and costs of $990,000 after Corrigan had limited Fieger's fees to $481,000.
But in his majority opinion, Judge Michael Corrigan said Judge John E. Corrigan lost his jurisdiction over the case after Hollins turned 18. Although Hollins is severely and permanently brain-damaged, no court has ever declared him to be incompetent -- a legal finding required for the case to remain in Cuyahoga County.
"Without the incompetency finding, the probate court's . . . jurisdiction (is) terminated," Michael Corrigan wrote in an opinion joined by Judge Christine McMonagle.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
jmccarty@plaind.com, 216-999-4153
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