Judge Certifies Class Action For Those Who Received Unnecessary Stents

On Thursday, April 4, 2013, Judge Sylvester Cox of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City certified a class action on behalf of 585 former patients of Dr. Mark Midei, a cardiologist who had been employed by the St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Maryland. The class action alleges that Dr. Midei implanted unnecessary stents in the arteries of patients’ hearts even though he knew the stents were not necessary. A stent is a mesh tube made of metal used to open blocked arteries in the heart.

The lawsuit also claims that, St. Joseph Medical Center provided no oversight or supervision to Dr. Midei even though the hospital was aware of his improper stents.

Judge Cox’s ruling permits the case to be consolidated as one trial instead of hundreds of individual trials. Unlike individual lawsuits where each patient would be required to testify, only a small number of patients representative of the entire class would be required to do so in order for all 585 class members to recover their full amount of damages.

Because of their extensive class action experience, Judge Cox also formally designated Murphy, Falcon & Murphy and the law offices of Peter G. Angelos as the exclusive legal team representing these plaintiffs in this class action. To get class certification, Murphy, Falcon & Murphy has analyzed thousands of hospital documents and taken the sworn testimony of over 85 hospital executives and employees, including Dr. Midei himself. Murphy, Falcon & Murphy has also hired world-class heart experts to prepare the case for a class action trial, which could occur as early as this fall.