Jurors on Wednesday in Atlanta, Georgia, awarded $48 million for the skin cancer that disfigured a man after they found a dermatologist who treated him responsible.
The award includes $32 million for Tony Waldrop’s pain and suffering and $16 million to his wife for the skin cancer, discovered in 2014, that cost Waldrop most of one ear, his teeth, and salivary glands, and left him with a host of complications. Wednesday’s award comes one day after the same Fulton County (Georgia) State Court jury found Dr. Joseph Payne, a dermatologist who treated Waldrop, responsible for the skin cancer injuries.
The $48 million verdict far exceeds the highest pre-trial settlement offer of $2 million, Patrica Waldrop’s attorney, Bell Law Firm’s Lloyd Bell, wrote in a statement to CVN after the verdict. However, he added that the combined insurance policy limits were $4 million.
During Tuesday’s closings in the bifurcated trial’s liability phase, Payne attorney Huff Powell Bailey’s Taylor Tribble walked jurors through Payne’s treatment of Waldrop.
She said evidence showed Payne followed the standard of care in conducting the June 2013 Mohs procedure, and she reminded jurors that the dermatologists followed up repeatedly with Waldrop multiple times in the months afterward.
Turning to Payne’s December 2013 removal of another growth from Waldrop’s ear, Tribble said the doctor followed the standard of care in not ordering a biopsy, given his conclusion that the growth was a cyst.
“Recurrent cancer sometimes happens even if you comply with the standard care,” Tribble said. “Cancer can recur, even if you do every type of treatment possible.”
But in his closing, Bell argued Payne breached the standard of care at multiple points throughout his treatment of Waldrop. He said Payne declared Waldrop cancer-free after the June Mohs 2013 surgery, despite tissue slides that were inconclusive on the issue.
And while a January 2024 retrial in the case resulted in a defense verdict, a motion for a new trial was subsequently granted due to evidentiary issues.
