Supreme Court overturns 1 million verdict against Thomas Memorial Hospital

The West Virginia Supreme Court last week overturned a $1 million verdict a jury awarded to a nurse who claims she was wrongly fired by Thomas Memorial Hospital.

The opinion filed Thursday states that jurors in Kanawha County in 2014 didn’t have enough evidence to rule against the hospital in the case of Susan Nutter.

Actually, Chief Justice Menis Ketchum wrote for the majority that Kanawha Circuit Judge Tod Kaufman should have thrown out the case before it went to trial.

“We find no evidence to support the jury’s conclusion that the hospital wrongfully discharged the nurse in order to jeopardize or undermine a specific public policy. We also find insufficient evidence to say the discharge was intended to inflict emotional distress upon the nurse. Further, we find that the nurse’s claim for defamation was barred by a one-year statute of limitation,” the opinion states.

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