Order Michigan Supreme Court
Lansing, Michigan
December 10, 2010 Marilyn Kelly,
Chief Justice
138636 Michael F. Cavanagh
Maura D. Corrigan
Robert P. Young, Jr.
Stephen J. Markman
SHERRI MARTIN, Diane M. Hathaway
Plaintiff-Appellant, Alton Thomas Davis,
Justices
v SC: 138636
COA: 280267
Emmet CC: 05-009021-NH
DAVID LEDINGHAM, M.D., DAVID
RYNBRANDT, M.D., ANDRIS KAZMERS,
M.D., and PETOSKEY SURGEONS, P.C.,
Defendants,
and
NORTHERN MICHIGAN HOSPITAL,
Defendant-Appellee.
_________________________________________/
On October 6, 2010, the Court heard oral argument on the application for leave to
appeal the January 27, 2009 judgment of the Court of Appeals. On order of the Court,
the application is again considered. MCR 7.302(H)(1). In lieu of granting leave to
appeal, we REVERSE the judgment of the Court of Appeals, and we REMAND this case
to the Emmet Circuit Court for entry of an order denying the defendant’s motion for
summary disposition. Because the plaintiff’s expert witness testified at his deposition
that, if the nurses had timely informed the treating physician of the plaintiff’s
deteriorating condition, the standard of care would have required the treating physician to
treat the plaintiff differently than he did, while the treating physician averred in his
affidavit that he would not have treated the plaintiff any differently than he did even if the
nurses had timely informed him of the plaintiff’s deteriorating condition, a question of
material fact exists that must be resolved by a jury. That is, having presented expert
testimony regarding the treatment that the plaintiff, pursuant to the standard of care,
should have received in the first 72 hours post-surgery, the treating physician’s averment
that he would have acted in a manner contrary to this standard of care presents a question
of fact and an issue of credibility for the jury to resolve. See White v Taylor Distributing
Co, 482 Mich 136, 141 (2008) (A question of material fact existed for the jury to decide
because the defendant’s deposition testimony that he “felt great” before he blacked out
was called into question by the defendant’s treating physicians’ deposition testimony that
2
the “defendant’s condition would have caused ongoing symptoms such as cramps and
pain.”). We agree with the assertion in Judge GLEICHER’s concurring opinion in Ykimoff
v W.A. Foote Mem Hosp, 285 Mich App 80, 121, 124 (2009), that the Court of Appeals
“incorrectly decided Martin,” and that “plaintiff’s expert testimony called into question
the credibility of the surgeons’ affidavits by asserting that the standard of care applicable
to the affiants required swifter intervention.”
I, Corbin R. Davis, Clerk of the Michigan Supreme Court, certify that the
foregoing is a true and complete copy of the order entered at the direction of the Court.
December 10, 2010 _________________________________________
1209 Clerk