Former NFL player’s $43.5 million score in medical malpractice case upheld

A Philadelphia appeals court has upheld the $43.5 million award awarded to former Philadelphia Eagles special teams player and captain Chris Maragos in his medical malpractice claim, which alleged that failed treatment of a knee injury took retired from the National Football League (NFL) in 2018.

In August 2023, a jury in the Court of Common Pleas found that sports medicine surgeon Dr. James Bradley and the rehabilitation institute Rothman Orthopedics Associates (ROA) were negligent in their medical treatment and therefore responsible for the premature end of the career of Maragos’ professional football and for his entire life. handicap.

During an October 12, 2017 game against the Carolina Panthers, Maragos suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee. In 2018, Maragos sued for medical malpractice, alleging that Bradley and ROA failed to properly treat the tear in an initial surgery and mismanaged his post-operative rehabilitation in a way that caused further damage. He says he continues to suffer pain and disability as a result of improper repair and rehabilitation of his knee injury.

A Court of Common Pleas jury trial took place over two weeks beginning in January 2022. During the trial, the jury heard testimony from key experts in orthopedic medicine as well as Maragos’ former teammates. Maragos’ medical experts testified that the meniscus tear should have been surgically repaired in the first surgery and that no rehabilitation should have occurred until the meniscus was repaired.

Following trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Maragos in the amount of $43.5 million, apportioning liability 67 percent to Bradley and 33 percent to ROA.

The ROA challenged the verdict as not supported by the evidence and requested a new trial. But Common Pleas Court Judge Charles J. Cunningham, III, sided with the jury and rejected the appeals, finding that the medical testimony the jury accepted as true supported the verdict.

ROA appealed again, and last week the Pennsylvania Superior Court agreed with the Court of Common Pleas in upholding the judgment and denying a new trial.

Maragos signed a three-year/$4 million contract with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2014. His contract was extended in 2016 for three years/$6 million. He was, at the time, the highest paid special teams player in the NFL.

In assessing the amount of the award, Judge Cunningham wrote that while $43.5 million was a “large amount of money … it does not shock the conscience” given that the plaintiff was a professional football player at the highest level. ROA complained that the award was four times the $9 million in economic damages Maragos suffered under his contract at the time of his injury.

But the judge noted that “there is no clear rule” prohibiting such a ratio, or even a higher ratio, and that the award included a “reasonable projection” for a future contract if Maragos continued to play, which he intended to do .

“Plaintiff not only lost his job, he lost his dream,” Judge Cunningham wrote, noting that Maragos was the highest paid special teamer in the NFL and there was no indication that his skills were in decline. “Putting a price on a dream is no easy task. In this case, the jury considered the evidence presented to reach their verdict and it does not shock the conscience that the plaintiff went from a dream job in the NFL to a lifetime of pain and disability resulting from the improper repair and rehabilitation of his injury at the knees. .”

The Superior Court agreed, attaching a copy of Cunningham’s ruling to its own.