TX Court Limits Med-Mal Exposure

The Texas state Supreme Court placed limits on health care providers’ medical malpractice exposure under the Medical Liability and Insurance Act by subjecting prejudgment interest to a cap on damages. A.M. Best reported that the court ruled 6-3 in Columbia Hospital Corp. vs. Moore et al. that the cap on damages stipulated by the 1977 law does pertain to prejudgment interest in liability claims related to the death of a patient. The court considered a 1995 amendment to the law—subchapter P, which mandates prejudgment interests for past damages, not future damages—in making its decision. Additionally, it maintained that prejudgment interest entailed a form of damage intended by the Legislature for inclusion in the cap stipulated by the Medical Liability and Insurance Act. The defendant in the case, Columbia Bellaire Medical Center, faced the estate of Katherine Moore, who died after undergoing surgery at the center in 1996. A trial court jury found that causal negligence existed between Columbia and the two treating doctors involved, and it awarded $3 million in damages. The defendant’s actual damages liability later was reduced to $1.3 million, but a lower court added $300,487 in prejudgment interest to the capped amount. The Supreme Court’s ruling found the decision to exclude the prejudgment interest from the amount to be capped was in error.