Lange - 01 - Damaged by Pamela Callow

Author:Pamela Callow [Callow, Pamela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Suspense
ISBN: 9780778327509
Publisher: Mira
Published: 2010-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

27

Wednesday, May 9, 10:07 a.m.

“We’ve got a problem,” John Lyons announced. “But it’s not insurmountable.”

He was sitting at the head of the boardroom table, a file folder spread out before him. Kate lowered herself into the chair on his right. It was 10:07 a.m., and John Lyons had called her up to one of the smaller conference rooms.

Her heart thudded loudly in her ears. Had he called her to talk about the MacAdam case? She furtively scanned the papers in front of him. Then relaxed. She could clearly see the statement of claim of Brad Gallivant. Her eyes fell on another document with a pale blue triangle stapled over the corner. She straightened. “Looks like the other defense has been filed.”

“Yes, we just received it.” John handed her the document.

She flipped through it. “Doesn’t hold any surprises, as far as I can see.” Dr. Ericson, the orthopedic surgeon who operated on Brad Gallivant’s knee, and the Greater Halifax General Hospital, known in the city as the GH2, claimed that the injuries caused to the plaintiff were solely attributable to the cadaveric tissue supplied by TransTissue, Inc. “So what’s the difficulty?”

“I just spoke to their counsel, Morris MacNeil.” She waited for John to give his usual smirk. Morris MacNeil always brought that out in him. But not today. Instead, John gave her an assessing look. “He’s claiming there’s a case in the U.S. that blows our defense out of the water. And…”

A case she hadn’t found? Sweat pricked her armpits.

She forced herself to keep her cool. Morris MacNeil had a reputation for blowing a lot of hot air. She arched a brow. “And?”

“He thinks he has a new plaintiff. Someone else who claimed to have gotten hep C from a bone filler. Gal by the name of Denise Rogers.”

“I see.” This was getting worse by the minute. “When are they going to file?”

“Morris is just doing up the claim, he says.”

“And what about this U.S. case?” She hated asking. She should know the answer. She should have unearthed that case, analyzed its facts, distinguished it in a memo and presented it to John Lyons. Before Morris MacNeil called him and caught him unprepared.

It must have been embarrassing for her mentor. She’d let down the one man who’d believed in her. Her cheeks burned.

“According to Morris, the U.S. appellate court recently came down in favor of a plaintiff who contracted syphilis through cadaveric transplant.”

“Same procedure?”

“Yes.”

“I see,” she said softly. Even though the U.S. legal system was not one the Canadian courts relied on for legal precedent, in a case involving state-of-the-art medical procedures the U.S. decision might have some weight.

“How did the plaintiff prove the syphilis came from the tissue?” she asked. “In most cases it would be difficult to pin down a sexually transmitted disease on knee surgery.”

“They found that the tissue processing procedures were below standard.” John leaned forward. “How many U.S. cases did you research for our defense?”

She straightened. “I pulled up a few, but they were inconclusive. It was too difficult to determine the cause of the disease.

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