COLLIN COUNTY, Texas — Dallas’ Fifth Court of Appeals has overturned a nearly $11 million jury award to Plano spine doctor Stephen Courtney.
Dallas attorney Kelly Liebbe and Jonathan Rute were to pay about half the McKinney trial court’s jury award.
Dr. Courtney claimed Liebbe and Rute hurt his business by allegedly obtaining approximately 1,500 confidential patient files and using them to solicit clients for medical malpractice lawsuits. After a 2021 civil trial, a McKinney jury awarded Dr. Courtney damages.
However, on July 5, the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas reversed the judgment of the trial court and ordered that Courtney and his company “take nothing on their claims” against Liebbe and Rute.
“In our view, the evidence simply did not enable reasonable and fair-minded people to reach the verdict under review because the evidence failed to establish a sufficient causal connection between the lost profits the jury awarded as damages and any alleged tortious conduct by appellants,” the court said.
Dr. Courtney’s attorney, Michael S. Alfred, said he and his client were disappointed by the Fifth Court’s decision.
“More than that, we are concerned about the appellate court’s misapplication of well-established law and its misconstruction of the facts the jury heard in great detail and found to be true,” Alfred said in a statement.
“...For the Dallas Court of Appeals to take away a Collin County jury verdict of this magnitude under these circumstances is a stunning miscarriage of justice,” Alfred’s statement said. “We look forward to having the Supreme Court review this matter, restore justice, and uphold one of the highest jury verdicts ever awarded in Collin County, Texas.”
Dr. Courtney had been the subject of two WFAA investigative stories in May and July 2017 in which former patients claimed he prioritized profits over their safety and medical care. The stories had interviews with Liebbe and two of her clients, who sued for malpractice.
Dr. Courtney sued Liebbe and Rute for lost profits and damages. Though Dr. Courtney alleged the WFAA stories had damaged his practice, he did not sue the television station.
Dr. Courtney alleged that his patient volume dropped by “almost half, all of which cost Dr. Courtney millions of dollars in monetary harm.”
The jury trial lasted four days. The two WFAA stories were among the exhibits admitted into evidence.
“It’s been a long road,” Liebbe said when reached for comment on this month’s appeals court opinion. “I’m happy the court of appeals did the right thing and real justice has been served.”
‘He (Dr. Courtney) did not give any evidence that any possible patients saw the WFAA stories and then canceled surgeries,” Liebbe said. “He only said he did less surgeries after the WFAA stories. He gave no evidence that I caused that or Rute caused that.”
Rute’s attorney Ty Clevenger said he agreed with the Fifth Court of Appeals findings.
“It is a huge relief for Jonathan. His life was held up for at least two-and-half years,” Clevenger said. “It is rare to have a reversal, but even rarer to have a reversal and render. That means no do-over. You lose.”
“The lawsuit was a case that should never have gone to trial,” Clevenger said.
Email: investigates@wfaa.com
