A West Virginia hospital that lost a $6.5 million malpractice verdict in March 2006 has now been assessed an additional $1.3 million in Court-ordered penalties. The original case remains on appeal and is slated for hearing on permission to appeal before the W.Va. Supreme Court in September.

Wood County Circuit Court Judge Robert A. Waters entered a rare order assessing the sanctions against Camden-Clark Hospital in late May, finding:

"Camden-Clark's violations of court orders, inaccurate answers in discovery, inaccurate testimony and all of its aggregated misconduct before this court, warrant substantial sanctions," according to the Judge's findings.

Among the allegations of misconduct, Judge Waters found that the hospital Risk Manager had failed to disclose critical documents in her possession and allegedly told wintesses to destroy notes or documents. "Camden-Clark's strategy in denying, throughout the case, things it knew well to be true went far beyond the privilege of putting the plaintiff to his proof," the Judge wrote.

"By breaching court orders, filing false discovery responses and by giving and permitting to be given inaccurate testimony under oath, and through multiple false statements to the court, the plaintiff, and the jury, Camden-Clark engaged in litigation misconduct," his order stated.

The hospital told the Marietta Times that they were reviewing the order, but could not comment on the case while it remained on appeal.

The underlying case involves the death of a patient in 2001 following surgery to repair a broken ankle. The Jury found that the anesthesiologist negligently overdosed Hilda Boggs with lidocaine.