A Big Islander loses the
By Russ Lynch
$355,040 malpractice damages
he won in 1987
Star-BulletinA Big Island man today lost a 15-year battle when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a doctor who filed bankruptcy to avoid paying a $355,040 malpractice award does not have to pay. The decision affirmed that people can file for bankruptcy and avoid paying damages, so long as they didn't intend to cause the injury.
Solomon Kawaauhau, whose wife, Margaret, had a leg amputated and suffered permanent kidney damage after being treated at Hilo Hospital in 1983 by Dr. Paul Geiger, said he was disappointed today at the unanimous high court ruling in Geiger's favor.
"I cannot understand, because he was wrong from the beginning, and yet he gets away with murder," he said in a telephone interview.
Margaret Kawaauhau died in 1989 of kidney failure.
In 1987, a Hilo jury found in favor of the couple in the malpractice case against Geiger.
By the time the case got to the high court in January, however, the issue was not about malpractice law but about bankruptcy law -- specifically, whether it protects Geiger, as he claimed, because he never intended to harm Mrs. Kawaauhau.
Her husband, a retired janitor who still lives in Hilo and inherited her estate, argued that Geiger, who had no malpractice insurance, was not protected because his treatment of Mrs. Kawaauhau amounted to willful and malicious injury.
Kawaauhau's attorney, Norman Pressman, won in the bankruptcy court and again in a U.S. District Court in St. Louis.
An appeals court, however, agreed with Geiger's attorney, Laura Grandy, in a May 14 ruling that Geiger's actions did not amount to the level of willful conduct where damages claims are exempt from bankruptcy protection.
Pressman, who also lives in St. Louis, and Grandy argued before the Supreme Court on Jan. 21 and Kawaauhau was there for the hearing.
Pressman said today he was disappointed in the decision and predicted it would prompt Congress to change the law so bankruptcy can no longer be used to avoid such payments.
The high court ruling, written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, said the law does not force Geiger to pay and said "... unless and until Congress makes such a decision, we must follow the current direction." Under the couple's logic, she wrote, "Every traffic accident stemming from an initial intentional act -- for example ... a left-hand turn without first checking oncoming traffic -- could fit the description."
Mrs. Kawaauhau's health woes started when she dropped a box on her toe in January 1983. Her foot swelled and she went to Geiger for treatment. He admitted her to the hospital and gave her oral penicillin and other medications.
She got worse, and while Geiger was away on a trip, doctors arranged to send her to Honolulu. Geiger came back, thought she looked stronger and canceled the move and all antibiotics. Her condition deteriorated, and on Jan. 14 her leg was amputated. She also suffered kidney damage.
In the 1987 case, Hilo Hospital settled out of court for $180,000.
