Firm wins $16.4M jury verdict on behalf of health care organization
Issue: The firm’s client, a physician-led primary care and specialty services organization, faced a $90 million lawsuit filed by a healthcare provider for an alleged breach of a medical services agreement.
Challenge: Defeating the breach of contract claim and proving a counterclaim for financial fraud, unjust enrichment, and breach of contract. Todd & Weld engaged in extensive pre-trial discovery to uncover evidence supporting the client’s fraud claims and prevailed in hotly contested pre-trial hearings to compel production of critical documents from the plaintiff.
Solution: Following a 15-day trial in September 2022, a Massachusetts Superior Court jury rejected the plaintiff’s claims and awarded the firm’s client $16.4 million on its counterclaim. With interest and costs, the final judgment exceeds $27 million.
The jury, which deliberated approximately four hours over two days, found that the plaintiff had committed serious financial fraud by among other actions concealing and double counting certain component dollar figures, and improperly billing for its total billings rather than collections, resulting in $11.6 million in overpayments by the firm’s client.
The jury also found that the plaintiff, in addition to its fraud, also breached the services agreement by withholding quarterly accounting information, and failing to provide updated and accurate information on its increased use of non-physician medical providers.
Attorneys: Howard M. Cooper, Seth J. Robbins, and Evan A. Johnson.