EL&C Trial Attorneys

$500,000 Jury Verdict for Podiatric Malpractice (1996)

NEW JERSEY LAW JOURNAL
SUITS & DEALS - APRIL 22, 1996

Thrasher v. Wishnie:

A Middlesex County jury deliberated for 45 minutes on April 11 before awarding $500,000 to an Edison woman who sued a podiatrist for his alleged failure to secure a bone in her foot.

Sharon Thrasher, now 29, consulted Peter Wishnie, who practices in Piscataway, about a bunion on her left foot. In March of 1991, Wishnie performed an elective osteotomy, a surgical procedure during which the fifth metatarsal is cut into two parts, says Thrasher's attorney, William Levinson. However, Wishnie allegedly failed to fixate one of the bones, and as a result the bone remained out of place until subsequent, extensive surgery was performed, according to Levinson, of William D. Levinson & Associates in Edison. Since then, Thrasher has permanent pain and sensitivity in her foot.

Middlesex County Superior Court Judge John Bachman, who presided over the three-day trial, confirmed the amount of the award.

Wishnie's attorney, Michael Lazarus of Corrigan & Lazarus in Springfield, was on vacation last week and could not be reached for comment.

Levinson estimates the total award, with prejudgment interest, at $566,475.

By Deseree Graham

Reprinted with permission from the New Jersey Law Journal, April 22, 1996 by American Lawyer Media, L.P.