.

Charles T. Gura

Supervising Attorney Health Care Department - New York & Connecticut Offices

Office Managing Attorney

Portrait of Charles T. Gura

Charles has gained experience in a diverse range of practice areas throughout his career, with a specific focus on medical malpractice defense litigation since 2004. He has handled more than 200 hundred medical malpractice cases to date, representing physicians and hospitals through all phases of litigation, including trial. Charles has also represented health care providers in disciplinary hearings.

In addition to representing health care providers, Charles has experience defending commercial property owners in premises liability cases, owners and contractors in construction accident cases under New York Labor Law, a boiler manufacturer in mass-tort asbestos litigation and a major commercial airline in aviation matters. He has also defended dram shop cases.

Charles has obtained defense verdicts and achieved settlement of cases well below the amount demanded during trial and beforehand through motion practice. For instance, in representing obstetricians in birth-related injury cases, Charles successfully petitioned the court to perform genetic testing on the infant-plaintiff, the results of which led to a substantial reduction in the settlement demand.

While attending New York Law School, Charles was employed as a claims examiner for a large insurer of doctors and hospitals in the state of New York. During that time he worked with physicians in all fields of surgery and medicine, oversaw a hospital account, and worked on risk management and regulatory issues. 

Charles began his legal career at Jones Hirsch Connors Miller & Bull P.C. He practices mainly in the New York City metropolitan area, in both State and Federal Courts, as well as the State of Connecticut.

Charles is a member of the New York State Medical Defense Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association. An active member of his community, Charles is a student mentor at New York Law School and has served in various leadership roles at his church.

    • New York Law School (J.D., 1997)
    • State University of New York at Oswego (B.A., 1990)
    • Connecticut, 1997
    • New York, 1997
    • U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York
    • U.S. District Court Southern District of New York
    • Hudson Valley Magazine, Top Lawyer, 2022
    • New York State Medical Defense Bar Association
    • New York State Bar Association
    • Defense verdict for two internists and their practice group in a wrongful death case involving failure to diagnose lung cancer in a 58-year-old patient.
    • Defense verdict in a case involving failure to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy leading to rupture and requiring emergency surgery.
    • Defense verdict in a case involving alleged negligent administration of anesthesia causing sepsis.
    • Directed verdict and dismissal of all claims against three intensivists and a urologist in a  case involving complications in the SICU following cardiothoracic surgery.
    • Bothe v. Vytra Health Plans Long Island, 13 A.D.3d 586 (App.Div.2d Dep’t 2004) summary judgment affirmed dismissing medical malpractice claim against an HMO based on ERISA preemption.
    • Civil Litigation State of Affairs – The Impact of COVID-19 in New York and Connecticut & What’s Next, Marshall Dennehey Client Webinar, May, 2021
    • New York Case Law Update, Health Care Law Seminar, Marshall Dennehey, November 9, 2016
    • Representation of indigent defendants in Fair Debt Collection Practices Act matters.

Thought Leadership

Defense Digest

On the Pulse…Our New Haven, Connecticut, Office

October 1, 2022

In March 2022, Marshall Dennehey opened its newest office in New Haven, Connecticut, to serve the needs of existing and future clients. Located at 700 State Street, our office is a short walk from the state and federal courts in New Haven and provides Marshall Dennehey with a platform centrally located in coastal Connecticut to allow for convenient access to courts in all judicial districts throughout the state. For the past several years, Marshall Dennehey has been handling a substantial Connecticut caseload, primarily out of the firm’s Westchester, New York, office. However, increasing client demand and opportunities led to the opening of the firm’s newest office, which is staffed with four experienced attorneys, a paralegal who is in her final year of law school, and outstanding legal support professionals. I am honored to be the managing attorney of this office. I have watched Marshall Dennehey’s practice in the state of Connecticut grow steadily since I joined the firm in July 2014, along with my fellow shareholder and Connecticut office colleague, Daniel Corde. I came to Marshall Dennehey with two decades of experience devoted almost entirely to the defense of medical malpractice cases. While I attended New York Law School, I worked as a claims examiner for Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Company (MLMIC), one of the largest medical malpractice insurance carriers in the country, which gave me a strong foundation for my legal career. My practice has expanded over the years into other areas of litigation, while continuing to represent health care providers and facilities in both New York and Connecticut. In addition to representing physicians, medical practices and hospitals, our defense of long-term care, rehabilitation and therapy facilities has grown markedly in the past few years. The pandemic had also brought increased demand for psychotherapy and mental health care services, and our defense of professionals and institutions in these fields has expanded as well. Daniel Corde serves multiple jurisdictions, with admissions in both New York and Connecticut, where he has defended matters for well-known clients including IKEA, Hyatt, Raymour & Flanagan, and Dollar General. Dan has 35 years of litigation experience, including trials to verdict, arbitrations and mediations, in a wide range of practice areas such as product liability, premises liability, premises security, transportation product liability, and toxic tort, mold, and asbestos litigation matters. Further, Dan is a FAA-licensed pilot and has spent a considerable number of years managing claims for a major aviation insurer. He has served as monitoring counsel in this type of litigation, working with insurance companies, primary and excess insurers, fixed-based aviation clients and local counsel, to establish, coordinate and manage the defense of cases. He has conducted mediations across the United States. David Lane, a shareholder in the firm’s Professional Liability Department, focuses his practice on privacy and data security, intellectual property and technology litigation. With respect to privacy and data security, David represents clients through all stages of data breach response, including investigations, compliance with data breach notification laws and regulatory investigations. David has been accredited by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) as a certified information privacy professional (CIPP/US). In addition, he has significant experience in insurance coverage and bad faith litigation, and consumer financial services litigation, defending clients and claims brought under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Fair Credit Reporting Act. David also has an appellate practice, working on appeals in a variety of matters. He is admitted in New York state and federal courts and Florida state courts. He practiced out of the firm’s Manhattan office for 12 years before joining us in New Haven. Caroline Skelton is an associate in the firm’s Casualty Department. Caroline has considerable civil defense litigation experience in both New York and Connecticut, where she has handled matters involving catastrophic losses. She has handled cases involving premises liability, construction accidents and accidents in the transportation industry. Caroline’s skills in motion practice, her attention to detail and her depth of knowledge have led to many successes in motions for summary judgment. She also litigates complex breach of contract actions in which she has represented high-profile clients such as General Motors. The New Haven office is also fortunate to have a dedicated support staff comprised of Michelle Ernandez, a paralegal now in her final year of law school, two administrative assistants, Amanda Britton and Caitlin Murtha, as well as one scheduling clerk, Mara Bonnell. I look forward to developing the New Haven, Connecticut, office into a site that will extend the firm’s reach throughout the state of Connecticut and beyond. Our office is located at 700 State Street, Suite 303, New Haven, CT 06511. Our main office phone number is 203-714-4560, and our fax number 203.714.4561. My direct line 203-714-4562, and my email is ctgura@mdwcg.com.   Defense Digest, Vol. 28, No. 3, October 2022 is prepared by Marshall Dennehey to provide information on recent legal developments of interest to our readers. This publication is not intended to provide legal advice for a specific situation or to create an attorney-client relationship. ATTORNEY ADVERTISING pursuant to New York RPC 7.1. © 2022 Marshall Dennehey. All Rights Reserved. This article may not be reprinted without the express written permission of our firm. For reprints, contact tamontemuro@mdwcg.com.

Firm Highlights

Result

No-Cause Jury Verdict Secured in Wrongful Death Trial

We successfully obtained a no-cause jury verdict in a 13-day wrongful death trial. The decedent, a 59-year-old man, was admitted to the emergency room on February 15, 2019, with complaints of abdominal pain, decreased appetite, and constipation, despite the use of laxatives. The patient did not complain of any nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. He had a significant medical history including diabetes, hypertension, prior coronary artery stenting, morbid obesity (with past gastric bypass surgery), longstanding ventral hernia, and back pain. A CT scan revealed multiple hernias and a potential closed-loop bowel obstruction, leading to a surgery consultation. Our client, an emergency general surgeon, interpreted that the patient did not have a closed loop or any significant obstruction and recommended non-surgical management. The patient was approved to have clear liquids, and had a vomiting incident shortly after, but our client was not notified. The patient was returned to NPO status, and after improving overnight, he was returned to “clears” and additional medical and renal consults were ordered. Our client did not receive any communications from the residents/nurses of any changes in the patient’s condition. On February 18, 2019, two rapid responses were called due to increased heart rate and vomiting. It is believed that the vomiting resulted in aspiration, causing sepsis, ultimately leading to the patient’s death. During the trial, the plaintiff’s sole medical expert highlighted imaging on the wrong hernia, which called into question all of his opinions in the case. We made key objections related to the expert testimony, limiting what the allegations were, and preventing new allegations from being made. After approximately two and a half hours of deliberating, the jury returned a no-cause verdict. 

Thought Leadership

Ohio Supreme Court Holds That a Binding Appraisal Award May Not Be Set Aside Absent Specific Evidence of Manifest Mistake or Fraud

On July 23, 2026, the Ohio Supreme Court issued a rare opinion on the binding effect of an appraisal award in a property insurance policy.  The Court in One Church held: A binding appraisal award will not be set aside unless an error is so palpably wrong that it undermines the intent of the agreement, such as corruption or gross mistake, not a mere error of judgment—To plead a claim of mistake with particularity as required by Civ.R. 9(B), facts alleged in a complaint must constitute the elements of mistake—Allegation that additional, hidden damage was discovered after appraisal award failed to state a claim of mistake that could justify setting aside binding appraisal.  The case arose out of a claim brought by One Church against its insurer, Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company for roof damage from a storm. Pursuant to the terms of the insurance policy, the parties agreed to submit the matter to appraisal. The two appraisers inspected the building, and both appraisers agreed that the damages were $313,271.98. The insurer paid the agreed appraised amount.  Thereafter, the insured submitted a claim for an additional $206,663.09 in damages. The insured argued that these additional damages were not discovered until after the repairs began, and that they should be permitted to submit an additional claim, even though there had already been a binding appraisal of damages. The insurer refused to pay the additional damages, and the insured sued for breach of contract and bad faith.  In the trial court, the insurer moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim, arguing that the binding appraisal award barred any further claims. The insured took the position that additional hidden damages could not be discovered until after the repairs began, and therefore there was a mutual mistake. The trial court dismissed the case on the insurer’s motion, because there was no “evidence of fraud, misfeasance, or mistake”. The Court of Appeals agreed that appraisal awards are generally binding, but noted that an appraisal award can be set aside for fraud or manifest mistake. The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the case to the trial court, finding that the insured had pled mistake with sufficient particularity. The insurer appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court. On appeal, the Ohio Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals, and reinstated the trial court decision dismissing the case for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The Supreme Court found that since the insured had already demanded appraisal, and the appraisal award was binding, “something more than error of judgement, such as corruption in the arbitrator, or gross mistake” must be pled with particularity, and proven for the insured to override the appraisal award. Since the complaint did not allege fraud or manifest mistake with sufficient particularity, something more than a mere error of judgment, the complaint was insufficient to state a claim.  The complaint in this case did not challenge the appraisal award. It pled that additional damages were discovered that were not apparent when the appraisal was done. It did not specify “who discovered the damages, how they were discovered, where they were found, why they were previously hidden, or why they rise to the level of a manifest mistake that the “appraiser would have corrected...had it been called to his attention”. Id at ¶22 citing Lakewood Mfg. Co. v. Home Ins. Co. of New York, 422 F.2d 796, 798 (6th Cir. 1970). Cases deciding the effect of appraisal awards are unusual. The Ohio Supreme Court’s decision in One Church relies primarily on 19th century case law for its conclusion. This emphasizes the fact that there is minimal case law deciding the effect of binding appraisal clauses in property insurance policies, and makes this case all the more significant. A lengthy dissent was written by Justice Fisher, who would have affirmed the Court of Appeals decision reversing and remanding the case for a decision on the merits. Of course, the decision works both ways, and an insurer dissatisfied with a binding appraisal award will likewise be without further recourse absent evidence of corruption, fraud, misfeasance, or manifest mistake, which must be pled with particularity. To constitute manifest mistake, “the mistake must be of such character that the arbitrator or appraiser would have corrected it had it been called to his attention.”  Lakewood Mfg. Co. v. Home Ins. Co. of New York, 422 F.2d 796, 798 (6th Cir. 1970).  The majority opinion does not specifically identify what would have been sufficient to plead mistake with particularity, or if the insured could have amended the complaint to overcome the deficiencies. The dissent argues that this was not really a case alleging mistake, but rather a question of contract interpretation. The insured did not challenge the appraisal, but argued that the hidden damage was not part of the appraisal, and the appraisal only covered the known damages.  However, this argument did not carry the day with the majority. 

Thought Leadership

New Jersey Appellate Division Affirms Exclusion of Legal Malpractice Expert as Impermissible Net Opinion

Jack Slimm and Jeremy Zacharias obtained a favorable decision on behalf of their client in a case centering on the admissibility of expert testimony in legal malpractice actions. In Martin v. Loury, the New Jersey Appellate Division affirmed the exclusion of a plaintiff's legal malpractice expert, holding that the expert's opinions on causation and damages were too speculative to support the malpractice claim. The legal malpractice action arose from an underlying employment dispute involving claims for damages stemming from the breach of an employment agreement. The plaintiff alleged that defense counsel committed malpractice during a second trial by failing to recall the plaintiff as a rebuttal witness after the employer's CEO testified. According to the plaintiff's expert, additional rebuttal testimony would have bolstered the plaintiff's damages claims and led to a more favorable result. Both the trial court and the Appellate Division rejected that theory. The courts found that the expert could not explain how the proposed rebuttal testimony would have altered the outcome of the underlying case or resulted in any additional recoverable damages. Notably, the trial judge in the underlying employment matter had already rejected the CEO's testimony as not credible and had accepted the damages analysis advanced by the plaintiff. The court had also determined that the amount of damages was not genuinely disputed. As a result, the expert's opinion that additional rebuttal testimony would have produced a better outcome was unsupported by the record and based on speculation rather than evidence. The Appellate Division agreed that neither the plaintiff nor the expert could identify any actual damages attributable to the alleged malpractice or demonstrate the required element of proximate causation. The court further upheld the trial court's application of New Jersey's net opinion doctrine, finding that the expert failed to provide the necessary "why and wherefore" supporting his conclusion that the attorney's conduct caused a compensable loss. Because the opinions rested on unquantified possibilities rather than demonstrable facts, they were inadmissible. Key Takeaway for Legal Malpractice Defendants For attorneys and firms defending legal malpractice claims, Martin v. Loury underscores the importance of closely scrutinizing an opponent's expert report on the critical elements of proximate causation and damages. The decision demonstrates that a malpractice claim cannot survive where an expert merely speculates that different litigation tactics might have produced a better result. Instead, the plaintiff must present admissible expert testimony grounded in the record that explains how the alleged attorney error probably changed the outcome of the underlying matter and resulted in measurable damages.