Summary Judgment Obtained for Physician in Circuit Court of Kanawha County

Salem Smith and Morgan Villers obtained summary judgment for their client in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County and successfully defended the summary judgment award before the Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia. The client, a Kanawha County physician, had been sued for alleged medical negligence where it was alleged that a foreign object had been left behind in a patient’s abdomen during surgery. The Circuit Court found summary judgment was appropriate due to the plaintiff’s failure to prove that the defendant physician had proximately caused her injury. The plaintiff appealed the decision to the Intermediate Court of Appeals. After hearing oral argument, the Intermediate Court of Appeals upheld the Circuit Court’s decision that the physician was entitled to summary judgment.

Disclaimer: Case summaries, reports of past results and individual lawyer biographies on this website describe past matters handled for clients of the firm. These descriptions are meant only to provide information to the public about the activities and experience of our lawyers. They are not intended as a guarantee that the same or similar results can be obtained in every matter undertaken by our lawyers. You must not assume that a similar result can be obtained in a legal matter of interest to you. The outcome of a particular matter can depend on a variety of factors—including the specific factual and legal circumstances, the ability of opposing counsel, and, often, unexpected developments beyond the control of any client or lawyer.