A prospective juror in a medical malpractice case may be removed for cause because his or her spouse is a patient of the defendant doctor, five of eight members of a state Superior Court en banc panel agreed.
In Cordes v. Associates of Internal Medicine, the Superior Court reversed the Beaver County Court of Common Pleas, which upheld a defense verdict. Most of the appeals court panel members said the plaintiff’s case had been prejudiced because three jurors in the case had ties to the defendants.
