New Jersey Supreme Court Denies Petition for Certification

In a win for our Medical-Malpractice Defense team, the New Jersey Supreme Court denied the Plaintiffs’ Petition for Certification in a medical malpractice case involving post-operative infection with Methicillin resistant Staph Aureus [MRSA].  Plaintiff was attempting to make new law using a statute that held that MRSA infections can be prevented  to circumvent the requirement to establish a deviation from the standard of care and a causal connection to the injury through qualified medical expert opinion.  Instead plaintiff sought to substitute the New Jersey legislature for medical experts.  Our attorneys were successful at the trial level and again arguing before the Appellate Court.   Most recently, the New Jersey Supreme Court has denied the Plaintiffs’ petition for certification, ending the case in our clients’  favor.  The legal arguments involved application of statutory construction  and the theories of burden shifting and res ipsa locitur.   This case was critical to our health system clients because if plaintiff was successful,  New Jersey  hospitals could be held strictly liable should a patient develop a MRSA infection in the hospital.