April 29, 2024
Cumberland Family Medical Center, et al. v. James A. Miller, M.D., et al.
According to Cumberland Family Medical Center, Inc. (“CFMC”), Dr. James A. Miller and Bluegrass Clinic Liberty, PLLC (“defendants”) made false and defamatory statements about CFMC to news media on or around December 5th, 2018. Nine days later, CFMC filed Cumberland Family Medical Center, et al. v. James A. Miller, M.D., et al. (18-CI-00175) in the Circuit Court of Casey County, Kentucky. Alleging that its “reputation and goodwill [had] been irreparably damaged”, CFMC sued the defendants for compensatory damages. Dr. D.C. Sharp, an Econ One expert experienced in lost profit calculations, was retained by counsel for the defendants.
Dr. Sharp was asked to evaluate a report submitted by CFMC’s reputation expert claiming that “damages in the range of $1.5M to $2.0M is fair and equitable”. Dr. Sharp showed that, in the two years which followed the defendants’ alleged misconduct, CFMC reported consecutive record-breaking patient counts, patient visits, patient revenues, total revenues, executive compensation, and net assets; CFMC reported a record-breaking general compensation increase in 2019, as well as a record-breaking profit increase in 2020; and, that same year, CFMC had the profits necessary to create its own $17M supporting foundation. While these outcomes are not indicative of an entity suffering from “extensive reputation damage”, as CFMC’s expert claimed, one could potentially argue that CFMC’s financial performance would have been even greater but for the defendants’ alleged misconduct. Thus, Dr. Sharp also examined CFMC’s financial performance relative to CFMC’s three largest comparators (who were not a subject of defendants’ alleged comments) and found that, during the relevant period, CFMC’s growth in patient counts, patient visits, patient revenues, total revenues, executive compensation, and net assets vastly exceeded those of the comparators. Dr. Sharp’s report, filed in August 2022, showed that CFMC’s compensatory damage claim was untethered to CFMC’s actual financial performance, and CFMC dropped its case against the defendants shortly after the filing of Sharp’s report.