Lawyers for the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania are pushing to go to trial rather than settle a lawsuit filed by the estate of Tony Grier - the man who died after a lung transplant at HUP two years ago - according to the attorney for Grier's estate.
"It seems like they're digging in their heels . they want to take this to trial," Dawn Jackson, the attorney for Grier's estate, said after a brief hearing yesterday.
She added that she finds the defense lawyers' reluctance to settle "puzzling."
The lawsuit filed by Grier's estate alleges that HUP knowingly transplanted a set of cancerous lungs into Grier, while telling him the lungs were healthy.
Medical malpractice suits rarely go to trial. In 2003, the Public Citizen's Congress Watch reported that 96 percent of all medical malpractice cases are settled outside of court.
According to statistics from the Judicial Branch of Pennsylvania, defendants usually win the suits that do go to trial. Of all such cases resolved in Pennsylvania courtrooms last year, 83 percent went in the defense's favor.
HUP attorneys were unavailable for comment yesterday, and generally don't discuss the case.
Yesterday, Jackson said HUP's lawyers have tried to keep the case as private as possible prior to any potential trial.
"They're losing in the court of public opinion," said Jackson. "They want everything to happen behind closed doors, to be discussed in the judge's chambers."
Jackson has taken an opposite approach, bringing about 20 of Grier's relatives to the federal courthouse in Philadelphia yesterday to hear a brief ruling by Judge Barclay Surrick.
Surrick ordered both sides in the case to keep confidential the identity of the lung donor, which was disclosed in a donor-background form that defense lawyers gave Jackson.
Jackson then included the name of the donor in her complaint. She says the donor-background form is crucial evidence in the case, because it shows that the 31-year-old donor smoked a pack of cigarettes a day and therefore should not have been eligible for lung donation.
Surrick ordered Jackson to return all documents containing the identity of the donor to the defense attorneys.
The defense lawyers have offered to give those documents back to Jackson after redacting the donor's name and other identifying information.
Jackson's complaint alleges that HUP doctors lied about the donor's identity, misrepresenting the donor as a "healthy 18-year-old male."
Currently, the case is in its discovery stage, meaning that both sides are still amassing the evidence that they will use in an eventual trial. Jackson estimates that a trial will not occur for at least another six months.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
DonatePlease note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.