$1 Million of Justice for Dr. Menkowitz?

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has reinstated an award of $1 million dollars in compensatory damages in a case that has been going on for over two decades—and is STILL not over yet.

In 1997, Pottstown Mercury Newspaper published a series of stories reporting that Elliott Menkowitz, M.D. had been suspended from Pottstown Memorial Medical Center and that his sudden absence had “spawned rampant rumors” of “professional misconduct in his treatment of an older female patient.”

Dr. Menkowitz sued the publisher of that paper and the reporter who wrote the story for defamation per se and defamation by implication.

A jury awarded Dr. Menkowitz $800,000 for past and future lost earnings, $200,000 for harm to his reputation, and $1 million in punitive damages.

Following post-trial motions, the trial court judge vacated the punitive damages award, ruling there was no evidence of malice, which is required for a punitive damages award.

Dr. Menkowitz appealed. On appeal, the Superior Court upheld the trial court’s ruling on punitive damages and also vacated the compensatory damages award.

Dr. Menkowitz appealed the Superior Court’s decision to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted allocatur, which meant that they would hear arguments on the limited question of whether the Superior Court failed to “apply the appropriate standards of causation and deference in vacating the judgment entered by the trial court awarding substantial compensatory and consequential damages to Elliot Menkowitz, M.D. for harm to reputation and loss of past and future earnings?”

A unanimous Pennsylvania Supreme Court concluded that the Superior Court had failed to give appropriate deference to the trial court as the factfinder. The Supreme Court found that the intermediate appellate court’s analysis had violated the Supreme Court’s holding in Joseph v. Scranton Times (Joseph III).

Writing for the court, Justice Christine Donahue stated that the appellate court overstepped its bounds by disregarding the evidence in the record that supported the jury’s verdict and instead pointed to contrary evidence to form its own conclusion.

This effectively reinstated the award of $800,000 for Dr. Menkowitz’s past and future lost earnings, $200,000 for harm to his reputation.

The case was remanded back to the Superior Court to address several issues that it did not examine in its original opinion.

For more OTW coverage of this case, see: After 22 Years, Penn Supreme Court to Hear Surgeon’s Appeal and After Two Decades Will Dr. Menkowitz Get Justice?