Decisions made

           
          Papers in negligent-credentialing case
           will show details behind settlement

By David Baker
Posted Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The lawsuit accusing former gynecologist Akiva Abraham of malpractice and Samaritan Hospital in Troy of negligently granting him privileges has been settled but until last-minute motions and opposing papers and the decisions on them that likely prompted the settlement are filed in the county clerk’s office, the details behind the end, on the first day of trial, of this six-year-old case won’t be publicly available.

In the days before the trial, both sides filed motions.  Stalker’s attorney’s wanted certified copies of three prior malpractice lawsuits that named both Abraham and Samaritan Hospital.  They also wanted to subpoena two doctors to testify, and to obtain records from the state Department of Health.

The hospital opposed all the motions and asked Justice Stephen Ferradino to preclude any questions or testimony about Abraham’s criminal conviction or the revocation of his medical license.

Ferradino’s decisions on these motions – due on the first day of the trial – would have shifted the balance of the case one way or the other. Those decisions – which have yet to be filed – and the prospect of days of testimony in open court, apparently prompted Samaritan Hospital to cave in and settle.

Abraham had no insurance; he is bankrupt and in prison. That left Samaritan as effectively the only defendant.  And with the legal fees and expenses generated by six years of litigation having to be accounted for, this settlement did not come cheap.
***

MEANWHILE, the first deposition in Samaritan’s lawsuit against this blog’s sister web page is set for this Thursday.  Details of the examination will appear here shortly.
                    ***