Defense Verdict for HPM&B in New York County

Michael Sullivan obtained a unanimous defense verdict in a Supreme Court, New York County medical malpractice case on March 6, 2020 after a one week trial.

The plaintiff was a 60-year-old physician who underwent surgery on June 4, 2014 to correct a bunion deformity and a hammertoe deformity on her right foot which was causing pain beneath her second toe. The plaintiff claimed that the defendant surgeon performed the wrong surgery and caused her to develop arthritis in her first metatarsophalangeal joint. Mr. Sullivan was able to show that the defendant’s surgery was appropriately planned and properly performed, and it corrected the plaintiff’s malalignment deformities which resulted in resolution of her pain complaints under the second toe. He was also able to show that the plaintiff’s arthritis had started to develop even before the defendant’s surgery and progressed naturally without any basis to blame the surgery itself. The jury unanimously agreed after four days of testimony and only twenty minutes of deliberations before the Honorable Laurence L. Love.