Irish lawyer wins $120 million verdict in NYC malpractice suit

Record award granted by Bronx jury for brain damaged mother

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MOLLY MULDOON,

Irish Voice Reporter

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An Irish lawyer has won one of the biggest medical malpractice suits in New York history.

Last Friday a Bronx jury awarded around $120 million to Thomas Moore’s client, a mother who became permanently incapacitated after being treated at three New York hospitals in 2004. The civil lawsuit was filed on behalf of 45-year-old Jacqueline Martin, by her mother.

A senior partner at Kramer, Diloff, Livingston & Moore in New York, Moore, a native of Co. Waterford, described the settlement as very, very gratifying.

“This was a mammoth task for me,” he told the Irish Voice.

“This is the highest verdict that I have ever had.”

The trial, which lasted for seven weeks, was the second longest Moore has worked on.

“When I try these cases I don’t get much sleep,” Moore said, adding, “It’s a labor of love”.

A mother of two, Moore’s client Jacqueline Martin suffered brain damage after numerous hospital visits, the first of which occurred in February 2004, after initially seeking medical treatment for a seizure. According to Moore, his client suffered an allergic reaction to seizure medication and was later diagnosed with Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare, serious skin disorder. This was, according to Moore, the beginning of the end.

“What happened was a 37-year-old woman had a seizure, got anti-seizure meds that she was allergic to and was not properly taken care of,” Moore, a De La Salle College, Waterford, graduate, told the Irish Voice.

After going into cardiac arrest, Martin then suffered brain damage.

“She was not properly cared for and went through some of the worst monitoring I have ever seen.”

The mother of two now requires 24-hour care, administered by her mother, who filed the civil suit on behalf of Jacqueline.

Before the incident Martin led a normal life and  worked as a claims adjuster.

“She was functioning perfectly, raising her family, singing with the church choir, “ Moore told the Voice. “She had a wonderful life.”

The ruling allocated 50 percent responsibility to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, 40 percent to Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn,  five percent Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn and four percent to one of its neurologists. The City’s City's Health and Hospitals Corporation plans to appeal the settlement.

Born in Waterford, Moore and immigrated to the U.S. aged 17, with his mother and siblings after his father passed away. Moore went on to graduate from Catholic University with a Sacrae Theologiae Licentiatus (STL) degree. He received a Juris Doctorate (JD) from Fordham Law School.

Recognized as a distinguished attorney, Moore has been cited by New York magazine and Super Lawyers magazine as one of the best lawyers in New York. He has been repeatedly listed in Dragonlaw as one of the top 500 lawyers in the country as well as the Irish Voice Legal 100. He is also on the Keough-Naughton Center for Irish Studies board at Notre Dame.