News

High drama, high stakes in store in malpractice case

Dr. Michael Rosner (left) confers with defense attorney Scott Stevenson. Plaintiff Billy Justus leaves Henderson County Courthouse with attorney Wade Byrd.

By Bill Moss, Published: August 10, 2014

 A measure of the trial's complexity and a forecast of its expected duration was on display last week in Superior Court.

The attorneys agree on almost nothing, starting with the judge.
Park Ridge attorneys filed an objection seeking to disqualify Judge Zoro J. Guice Jr., based on his connection to Easley. Judge Forrest BridgesThe governor had appointed him to an "emergency judge" seat after his retirement as Henderson County's chief resident Superior Court judge.
Superior Court Judge Forrest Bridges, brought in to hear the motion last Monday, sounded skeptical of the Park Ridge attorneys' timing. Why had the hospital waited until now, on the eve of the trial, to move to disqualify the judge who has guided the case for 11 years?
"If it were as simple as the defense would have me conclude," Bridges said, "then it should have been obvious to everybody as of November of last year" when Easley first joined the plaintiff's case.
Jackson stood up to argue that Byrd's emails about his phone calls with the judge on procedural matters implied a friendly relationship. Moreover, the defense lawyer went on, the outcome of pretrial motions seemed to tilt in favor of the plaintiff.
Bridges brushed that aside. He said in 40 years he had never heard of a lawyer who, upon losing a ruling before a judge, thought afterwards that he should have lost.
"Is Judge Guice somehow beholden to Mr. Easley to the point that it might affect his impartiality in the case?" Bridges asked. Ruling that the answer was no, Bridges suggested his fellow jurist was unlikely to consider his current assignment a reward. Bridges said he was taking into account "the less than extravagant pay of emergency judges and the fact that he is vested in retirement and frankly (the fact) that if he is a reasonable person would rather be fishing than trying 33 medical malpractice cases in Henderson County. He's probably making per day what most of the lawyers are making per hour for his services in this case."
"Former government officials don't go away," he added. "It is the nature of people who are motivated to obtain positions like governor or judge that they are just not happy sitting on the porch rocking. As such, their paths sometimes cross again."