- The Associated Press
A Philadelphia judge has ruled that a professional liability insurer must defend and indemnify a dentist in a medical malpractice case, even though the dentist’s policy stated that any alteration of medical records would void the policy.
The judge refused to find that a dentist’s alteration of patient medical records would interfere with his professional liability insurer’s defense of the malpractice case.
According to the judge, the case is “one of first impression for this court.”
In Eastern Dentist Insurance Co. v. Jones, PICS Case No. 05-1158 (C.P. Philadelphia June 29, 2005) Jones, J. (8 pages), Eastern Dentist Insurance Company, a “dental risk retention group,” had asked the trial court to find it didn’t have to defend and indemnify dentist Lionel A. Jones in a medical malpractice lawsuit stemming from his extraction of Robert Simmons’ tooth in 2002 because his insurance policy stated that any alteration of medical records would void the policy.
Common Pleas Judge C. Darnell Jones II from the court’s Commerce Program determined that Jones had, in fact, altered the records.
But the judge, focusing on the rest of the language in the provision, said he couldn’t conclude whether the alterations would prejudice the insurer’s defense.
“The only way in which this court can conclusively establish that the alterations caused interference is to await the outcome of the underlying litigation,” Jones wrote in his opinion.
Jones rejected the insurance company’s motion for summary judgment because “genuine issues of fact exist as to whether Dr. Jones’ alterations interfered with the underlying action which prejudiced EDIC.”
He stayed the matter until the underlying malpractice case is resolved.
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