You will remember 11 year-old Janae Matute - whom we featured on this newscast in 2010. She was born with cerebral palsy, and received the biggest malpractice award of a little over 2.6 million dollars from the Supreme Court in November 2010. Her mother, Georgia Matute was awarded with just under six hundred thousand dollars.
Justice Awich found that the doctor, Raju Meenavalli, acted negligently when he calculated Georgia Matute's due date, which caused Janae to be born pre-term, and caused her to develop complications.
Well, on the last day of the sitting of the March Sessions of the Court of Appeal, Doctor Raju Meenavalli appealed the decision; he was represented by attorney Godfrey Smith.
Smith appealed Justice Awich's decision on the grounds that there was not a full-proof scientific method to calculate the exact time in the gestation period, and that the trial judge's conclusion does not have the evidence to support it.
Attorney Fred Lumor represented the Matute family and he was able to provide the Court of Appeal enough scientific evidence to prove to the court that the length of a full pregnancy term can be precisely calculated.
He also asked the Court of Appeal to reverse a ruling made by Justice Awich which effectively removed any liability from the Government of Belize. His reason for asking for that reversal was that Doctor Meenavalli was employed, and he was acting as an agent of GOB when he delivered Janae Matute.
After considering the evidence provided by Lumor, the Court of Appeal dismissed the Doctor Meenavalli's claim but reduced the award to Janae to a little less than 2.1 million dollars. They also upheld Justice Awich's award to the mother.
One final important ruling made by the Court of Appeal was they reversed the ruling that GOB was not liable for Dr. Meenavalli's appeal. The effect of this is that GOB must assist Dr. Meenavalli in paying this award to the Matute Family.
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