An emergency room physician is collecting $26 million in a wrongful termination lawsuit against ER staffing company EmCare after originally being awarded $29 million in the case, according to KCUR.
Raymond Brovont, MD, sued two subsidiaries of Dallas-based EmCare in 2018, claiming the company wrongfully terminated him after he raised concerns about staffing issues at Overland Park (Kan.) Regional Medical Center. The staffing decisions at the hospital were made by EmCare.
In October 2018, a jury in Jackson County, Mo., awarded Dr. Brovont $29 million, which included $20 million in punitive damages. A trial judge reduced the award to $13.1 million after applying punitive damages caps under Kansas law, according to the report.
Both sides filed an appeal in the case, and the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled in October that the trial judge wrongly applied the Kansas cap on punitive damages to EmCare's Missouri subsidiary. The original award was reduced to $23 million and upped to $26 million after post-judgment interest was added, according to the report.
The Missouri Supreme Court refused to review the case, bringing an end to the litigation.