La Mesa Quadriplegic Takes on Belli, Wins

A quadriplegic La Mesa man has won a $5.8-million malpractice case against Melvin Belli’s San Francisco law firm, which handled his personal injury case after an auto accident in San Diego County in 1972.

After a seven-week trial before San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Sigone and two days of deliberation, the jury concluded Tuesday that the law firm was at fault in failing to realize that the doctors and nurses who treated 31-year-old Ted Giesick were guilty of malpractice.

James Bostwick, the San Francisco attorney representing Giesick, said the decision is the largest compensatory verdict against a lawyer in the state and one of the largest personal injury verdicts in San Francisco.

In 1972, Giesick, then 17, was a passenger in a friend’s Jeep when he was thrown through the windshield as the vehicle spun out of control and rolled over.

Giesick was taken to El Cajon Valley Hospital and, according to Bostwick, doctors failed to diagnose and treat his injuries properly.

A subsequent investigation showed that Giesick had suffered a broken neck when he was taken to the hospital but he was still able to move his arms and legs, making it difficult for doctors to diagnose his injury, Bostwick said.

Giesick was moved by nurses who were changing his bed sheet, which caused the fractured bones to sever his spinal cord, leaving him a quadriplegic.

Giesick’s family hired Belli’s law firm in 1974. Belli is widely known as a pioneer in personal injury lawsuits.

The firm reached an out-of-court settlement with the driver’s insurance company for $250,000 but failed to recognize the malpractice case in time to effectively prosecute the case.

The four-year statute of limitations on malpractice cases had expired by the time the firm recognized the hospital’s negligence.

Giesick’s family then hired Bostwick, who reached a $1.8-million settlement with the hospital and filed the suit against Belli’s firm.

Belli’s law firm gave the case to the youngest lawyer in the office who, working without supervision, failed to investigate and determine if the people other than the driver were responsible for Giesick’s injuries, Bostwick said.

Belli said he had nothing to do with the case. “The two men who handled the case are no longer in my office, thank God. I fired them about a year ago,” Belli told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

Belli’s insurance policy is expected to cover the malpractice bill.

Robert Glenn, Belli’s lawyer, told the court he will seek to subtract the combined amount of Giesick’s two earlier settlements, leaving Belli’s firm to pay a maximum $3.75-million malpractice bill, Bostwick said.

Neither Glenn nor Belli could be reached late Wednesday to comment on whether they would appeal the verdict.