Whatley-Miller

Thomas Miller died on December 8, 2006. On February 22, 2008, his widow, Susanne Whatley-Miller, and his two daughters, Holly Elizabeth Miller and April Ann Miller (collectively, plaintiffs), filed a complaint for medical negligence and wrongful death against Michael A. Stark, M.D., Collin Cooper, M.D., and Verdugo Hills Hospital. Plaintiffs dismissed the hospital defendant with prejudice prior to trial. In the first trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Dr. Stark but was unable to reach a verdict as to Dr. Cooper.

In a second trial, the jury returned a verdict for plaintiffs and against Dr. Cooper. The trial court reduced the award of noneconomic damages to the mandatory statutory amount of $250,000 and entered judgment for plaintiffs in the total amount of $1,437,276, consisting of $1,187,276 in economic damages and $250,000 in noneconomic damages. The trial court later entered a conditional order granting Dr. Cooper’s new trial motion on damages unless plaintiffs agreed to the reduction of the economic damages awarded by $238,369, namely, to a revised total award of economic damages in the amount of $948,907. On August 8, 2011, plaintiffs agreed and accepted…