Malpractice case dismissed because Plaintiff's orthopedic expert over-qualified
Matthew Bondie sued his orthpaedic surgeon, Cynthia Rubert, M.D. of West Branch, alleging that she provided inadequate treatment to his finger, resulting in its amputation. He proposed to prove his case through the use of an orthopaedic surgeon who was additionally certified in hand surgery and spent about 70% of his time treating in the orthopaedic sub-specialties of hand and sports injuries and 30% of his time treating other general orthopaedic problems.
The Court of Appeals upheld the discharge of his case on the basis that his expert was "under-qualified" to testify in general orthopaedics, because he did not spend a majority of his time in the "general" specialty---even though the one most relevant specialty--hand surgery--is a sub-specialty of orthopaedics.