The London-based Privy Council Tuesday upheld a TT$18.03 million (One TT$=US$0.16 cents) judgement in favor of a former finance minister in Trinidad and Tobago, after she had taken legal action against a private hospital and one of its doctors.
Gulf View Medical Centre and one of its doctors had appealed the multi-million dollar awarded to Karen Nunez-Tesheira, after her 54-year-old husband died following a medical procedure.
The Privy Council, the country’s highest court was asked to determine whether the Court of Appeal was correct to uphold the trial judge’s findings as to causation and quantum among other matters.
The Privy Council was told that on April 13, 2004, the husband of the former finance minister, Russell Tesheira, was admitted to the Gulf View Medical Centre (GVM) to undergo surgery on his prostate. Tesheira experienced heavy bleeding following the operation and died the same day.
His widow issued a writ of summons against GVM and two of the doctors for clinical negligence in the death of her husband seeking damages in excess of TT$18 million.
Nunez-Tesheira, who served as finance minister in the Patrick Manning government between 2007-10, had her claim against one of the doctors settled before trial.
The doctor and GVM’s appeal to the Court of Appeal were dismissed, although several findings of the High Court judge were reversed.
In their appeal to the Privy Council, both GVM and the doctor sought relief against both liability and quantum.
In its 33-page ruling, the Privy Council noted that the Court of Appeal in its judgment made a concurrent finding of fact that the cause of the death of the former senior insurance executive was fluid overload.
“On the evidence before [the judge], there was sufficient evidence for him to conclude that on a balance of probabilities the death of the deceased was caused by the negligence of the appellants,” the Court of Appeal had ruled.
The Privy Council said “there are no grounds for the Board to go behind such concurrent findings as to the cause of the deceased’s death” as it dismissed the appeals.
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