SURGEON SEEKS SUIT'S DISMISSAL; ATTORNEY ARGUES ACTION WAS INTENDED TO BULLY.Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer Attorneys for a Lancaster neurosurgeon sued by another neurosurgeon for libel and slander libel and slander slander n. oral defamation, in which someone tells one or more persons an untruth about another which untruth will harm the reputation of the person defamed. Slander is a civil wrong (tort) and can be the basis for a lawsuit. Damages (payoff for worth) for slander may be limited to actual (special) damages unless there is malicious intent, since such damages are usually difficult to specify and harder to prove., in law, types of defamation. In common law, written defamation was libel and spoken defamation was slander. Today, however, there are no such clear definitions. Permanent forms of defamation, such as the written or pictorial, are usually called libel, while the spoken or gestured forms are called slander. are asking for dismissal of the lawsuit on the grounds it punishes the defendant for exercising his right of free speech. Dr. George Perdikis' lawsuit against Dr. Abdallah Farrukh is a SLAPP SLAPP - Secure Light Access Point Protocol (IETF) SLAPP - Sounds Like A Personal Problem SLAPP - Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation - or strategic lawsuit against public participation - which is brought to obtain an economic advantage over a defendant, not to vindicate a legal right of the plaintiff, attorneys for Farrukh said in court papers. ``SLAPP suits have been defined as civil lawsuits . . . that are aimed at preventing citizens from exercising their political rights or punishing those who have done so,'' the court filing said. Perdikis filed a lawsuit last September against Farrukh, Antelope Valley Hospital chief of staff, and Farrukh's former partner, Dr. Harvey Birsner, claiming they called him incompetent. In an attempt to address the increase of SLAPP lawsuits, the state Legislature passed a law stating that such suits could be thrown out if acts of the person being sued dealt with free speech in connection with a public issue or an issue of public interest, Farrukh's attorneys said in court papers. ``Surely there can be no issue of greater public interest than the competence of doctors practicing medicine in the community,'' the court filing said. State officials said Perdikis was formally charged in August 1996 with gross negligence gross negligence n. carelessness in reckless disregard for the safety or lives of others, which is so great it appears to be a conscious violation of other people's rights to safety. It is more than simple inadvertence, but it is just shy of being intentionally evil. If one has borrowed or contracted to take care of another's property, then gross negligence is the failure to actively take the care one would of his/her own property. in the deaths of two patients and accused in 1992 of performing unnecessary surgery on two other patients at Mercy Medical Center in Redding. The board's complaint, however, was withdrawn in December 1997 for reasons that were not made part of the public record public record n. any information, minutes, files, accounts or other records which a governmental body is required to maintain, and which must be accessible to scrutiny by the public. This includes the files of most legal actions. A court will take "judicial notice" of a public record (including hearsay in the record) introduced as evidence. For example: a recorded deed to show transfer of title or a criminal judgment are both public records., medical board officials said. |
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