New Jersey Superior Court permits emergency room physician on cross examination to deny the liability he stipulated to in settlement agreement, resulting in a verdict of no cause for the defendant-employer emergency room.

The plaintiff's estate brought this suit for wrongful death against an emergency room physician, Dr. Ganguly, and the operators of the emergency room, Emergency Physician Associates (EPA), where the decedent died four days after presenting to the emergency room and coming under the defendants' care. Shortly before trial, the plaintiff and Dr. Ganguly entered into a settlement agreement wherein Dr. Ganguly stipulated to liability and causation in regards to his treatment of the decedent, leaving EPA as the sole defendant at trial. The plaintiff called Dr. Ganguly as a witness, and on cross-examination Dr. Ganguly testified that at the time of the settlement, he did not believe he was negligent and had only executed it to get out of the stressful litigation. The jury consequently returned a verdict of no cause of action. Plaintiff's appeal was denied as the Appellate Division affirmed and held that (1) Dr. Ganguly's admissions of liability in the settlement agreement did not bind his employer EPA and (2) those admissions, while evidence of negligence, were not conclusive and were appropriately subject to cross-examination by EPA. Therefore, Dr. Ganguly's testimony on cross-examination was permitted despite the fact that it conflicted with and repudiated the settlement agreement.

Case Law Alert - 4th Qtr 2011