919 854 4454
800 350 7574
Mailing Address
P.O. Box 30303
Raleigh, NC 27622
Street Address ( Map )
1500 Sunday Drive, Suite 208
Raleigh, NC 27607
Send us a message
Settlements end last suits over doctor's behavior
Craig Jarvis, Staff Writer
RALEIGH -- The last two corporate defendants have settled the sexual-misconduct lawsuits brought against former Cary physician Wallace N. Evans II.
The settlements were confidential, as they were in last month's agreements reached by Evans, a health maintenance organization, companies related to his practice and the 15 women who sued them.
The women's attorney, Elizabeth Kuniholm of Raleigh, on Thursday described the settlements as "substantial." The total amount could be one of the largest medical malpractice settlements or verdicts in North Carolina in recent years, and is certain to be among the biggest in any recent civil case.
The lawsuits were filed before a 1996 law put a cap on punitive damages of $250,000 or three times the compensatory damages, whichever is greater.
In December, a Wake County jury awarded $1.2 million in compensatory damages to the first six of the women who went to trial. So the final settlement for all 15 women is likely to be well over the $3.6 million to which they would have been limited under the cap on punitive damages.
Last year, NC Lawyers Weekly reported that the largest medical malpractice award for 1998 was $2.8 million. But this was more of a sexual-harassment case than a malpractice claim, although there is no such law to sue under in this state. This settlement far surpasses any other recent award or settlement in that kind of case.
In its most recent statewide survey of the largest verdicts and settlements, to be published next week, the legal newspaper reports that the top 50 awards in 1999 were all at least $1 million each.
"My clients are pleased that it has come to a conclusion," Kuniholm said. "They felt the failure of these organizations to monitor and supervise Dr. Evans was a significant and an important issue."
During the early 1990s, some of Evans' female patients began complaining to the NC Medical Board and their insurance carriers that the family practice doctor had fondled them and made lewd remarks and inappropriate inquiries into their sex lives.
The two defendants that settled over the past few days were Maxicare Health Plans, which is a California-based HMO, and Interactive Medical Systems, a third-party administrator that pays insurance claims.
In January, the company that bought Evans' practice, along with several of its subsidiaries, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, settled. That came after the jury in the two-month-long trial found that Evans was negligent in harming the six former female patients and found him liable for compensatory damages. A second trial with a new jury would have decided whether Evans, Blue Cross and the corporate owners should be liable for punitive damages. These final settlements avert trials involving the remaining nine plaintiffs.
© 2000 by The News & Observer Pub. Co. Reprinted with permission of The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina. Reproduction does not imply endorsement.