Goldstein, Garber & Salama, LLC v. J. B.

797 S.E.2d 87 (2017)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P came to D's office for an outpatient dental procedure. Serdula administered anesthesia to P and kept her in a heavily sedated state for approximately two hours, which included a 35-minute break between two phases of her procedure. P was left alone with Serdula, and Serdula made three brief video recordings of himself sexually molesting P. These videos of P as well as videos of Serdula sexually molesting other anesthetized patients, were later discovered when Serdula's hidden cell phone was found recording employees in D's office restroom. D had no knowledge of anything in Serdula's record that indicated he might sexually molest or otherwise harm a patient. P sued D and Serdula but withdrew her claims against Serdula after he pled guilty to numerous criminal charges and was sentenced to life in prison. P's claims against D were for negligence per se and professional negligence. A jury found in favor of P. D appealed. The Court of Appeals held there was evidence from which the jury could find that D breached its duties to follow professional standards regarding the extent to which P was anesthetized and to which Serdula was supervised. Serdula's criminal acts intervened between any breach of duty by D and the injuries to P. The Court of Appeals noted that the level of anesthesia P was given “rendered her a more vulnerable target” to sexual assault, and given that the dental community is aware that sexual assaults of anesthetized patients do occur and that the profession considers them to be events which should never happen. The court affirmed and D appealed.