Gathers’ Family Receives $1 Million : Jurisprudence: As a result of compromise, cardiologist is dropped from wrongful death suits. Twelve defendants remain.

Vernon Hattori, the cardiologist who treated Hank Gathers, agreed to pay $1 million to Gathers’ mother and son in order to drop him and his firm from the wrongful death suits filed against them and 12 other defendants in the death of the former Loyola Marymount basketball star.

However, eight hours of settlement negotiations by the remaining parties Friday proved fruitless when Loyola’s offer fell about $2 million short of the plaintiffs’ expectations and barely matched Hattori’s. The case appears headed for its scheduled trial date of Feb. 24, when Hattori can be called as a witness.

In the offer to compromise accepted by Hattori, a judgment for his $1-million professional liability insurance policy was entered against him Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court in Torrance.

When the judgment is paid, it will release Hattori and Apex Cardiology from the suits charging them with negligence in the medical treatment of Gathers, a basketball player at Loyola, who collapsed March 4, 1990, while playing in a postseason game and died less than two hours later.

An autopsy listed the cause of death as a heart disorder, but members of Gathers’ family and representatives of his estate assert that Gathers would not have died had his condition been properly treated.

Within weeks of his death, two suits were announced--one for $32.5 million on behalf of Gathers’ mother, Lucille, and other family members, and the other for an unspecified amount on behalf of Gathers’ 8-year-old son Aaron Crump. Since then, the two suits have been combined and will be heard as one case.

According to attorneys, the amount of money each party will receive has not been decided.

Hattori’s attorney, C. Snyder Patin, said he accepted the plaintiffs’ demand for an offer to compromise because he was concerned that a jury would question some of Hattori’s judgment calls in his treatment of Gathers. He said the offer is entered by the court as a judgment, but it is not an admission of liability by Hattori.

“We were interested in complying with the (plaintiffs’) offer before it was withdrawn because we could possibly be exposed to more than that,” Patin said.

“We didn’t want to take a chance that the plaintiffs would come to the same realization that we did, which was that perhaps a jury verdict against the rest of the defendants was not likely because they did not do anything that could be reasonably called into question.”

Meanwhile, sources familiar with the case said the settlement negotiations, which began three months ago, were held up because some of the defendants, including Loyola, were waiting for Hattori to put up his money. Sources say that the plaintiffs expected Loyola to offer $2.5 to $3 million Friday, figures that had been discussed, but Loyola’s offer barely matched the $1-million of Hattori’s.

Bruce Fagel, the attorney for Lucille Gathers, would not be specific when asked about the negotiations but called Friday’s conference unproductive. “There were implied promises given to all parties by attorneys for Loyola that the case would settle, and certain numbers that were previously discussed with the plaintiffs that were not met,” Fagel said.

But Wayne Boehle, the attorney for Loyola, said that he thought everyone did their best Friday. “With all due respect to all the parties, everybody worked hard and listened to each other in pursuit of a settlement, but the efforts that were made were not fruitful,” Boehle said.

With the removal of Hattori, the defendants are Loyola, some of its employees, former coach Paul Westhead, and the doctors and their firms that treated Gathers either before or in the moments surrounding his death.

It is possible that the plaintiffs may reach a settlement with the doctors who are not employees of Loyola. Laws governing malpractice cases in California place a $250,000 ceiling, and in this case, attorneys are unclear if the $250,000 applies to the doctors collectively or individually. Hattori’s settlement exceeded the limit because it included money for alleged economic damages suffered by Gathers’ family because of his death.

However Westhead, now coach of the Denver Nuggets, has refused to settle. His attorney, Richie Phillips of Philadelphia, says he wants vindication for his client.