Surgery Patient Stripped of Damages Award Against Spine Doctor

An Ohio woman must pursue a new negligence trial after a state appeals court found that she improperly introduced into evidence a video collage of various deposition answers provided by the defendant doctor.

The collage undoubtedly affected the jury’s verdict, especially when considered alongside “editorializing” by Tammy Mann’s attorney during closing argument about Abubakar Durrani’s alleged inability to tell the truth, the Ohio Court of Appeals, First District, said Wednesday.

Mann sued Durrani and his former practice, the Center for Advanced Spine Technologies Inc., in 2013. She alleged claims for negligence, failure to obtain informed consent, and fraudulent misrepresentation stemming from an allegedly unnecessary surgery Durrani performed in 2012.

Following a trial, a judge awarded Mann more than $438,000 in damages. Durrani and CAST appealed, arguing that they should have been given a new trial because the judge abused his discretion by admitting the collage into evidence.

The appeals court agreed. In reaching that decision, the court relied on another recent case involving the same doctor, Stephenson v. Durrani, in which it held that the collage wasn’t admissible. There, the court recognized the collage was “rife with prejudicial and inadmissible testimony.”

For example, discussions of Durrani’s loss of his medical licenses and questions about other medical malpractice lawsuits were barred by Ohio’s rules of evidence, the Stephenson court said. Other deposition answers were irrelevant and had no bearing on medical malpractice claims, it said.

The collage’s admission, moreover, wasn’t harmless, the current court said. Durrani’s credibility was a key point, given conflicting evidence about whether Mann benefited from the surgery and whether Durrani exaggerated findings from her medical images, it said.

Mann’s attorney further called Durrani’s credibility into question when he referred to the collage and said, “he just can’t own up to the truth,” the court said. The evidence “assuredly” impacted the jury’s assessment, Judge Jennifer Kinsley said.

Judges Candace C. Crouse and Pierre H. Bergeron joined.

This is one of multiple lawsuits filed against Durrani and CAST. Many have been dismissed as time-barred, but the Ohio Supreme Court has allowed others to proceed under an exception to the state’s statute of repose because Durrani fled to his native Pakistan in 2013 to avoid state and federal litigation. The doctor hadn’t returned to the US as of December 2022.

Robert Winter of Covington, Ky., James Maus of Cincinnati, and Benjamin Maraan II of Cincinnati represent Mann. Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, and Lindhorst & Dreidame Co. LPA represent Durrani and CAST.

The case is Mann v. Durrani, Ohio Ct. App., 1st Dist., No. C-220022, 8/2/23.