After deliberating for 50 minutes, a Philadelphia jury Friday returned a $2.5 Million verdict to compensate a man for the pain and suffering he received after complications in a thyroid surgery that removed a malignant tumor.
Eric G. Zajac, associate at Weinstein, Goss, Schleifer, Eisenberg, Winkler, Rothweiler & Ostroff argued the case for his client, Alan Feldman, before Common Pleas Court Judge Victor J. DiNubile.
The award breaks down into $2.2 million for Feldman to compensate him for pain and suffering, including embarrassment, humiliation, loss of life’s pleasures and discomfort. The jury awarded $300,000 to Feldman’s wife for loss of consortium.
The case was a re-trial that had ended in a hung jury in May 1997 before former Common Pleas Court Judge Paul Ribner. In 1997, the trial lasted about 10 days and after deliberating for two days, the jury was unable to reach a verdict. Zajac said he thinks this case is one of the oldest Day Backward cases in the system.
Zajac said it took almost two years to re-try the case because of the defendant’s attempted appeal of the hung jury. He said no settlement offer was ever made.
This time around the trial only lasted four days because fewer witnesses were called, Zajac said.
