Suit Charges 'Inhumane' Questions at Deposition Caused Emotional Distress
Rough spots are common on the road of civil litigation, but it's not every day that a plaintiffs attorney sues his adversary for asking "inhumane" questions during a deposition that allegedly inflict "grievous emotional distress."That's the thrust of a suit filed July 11 in Essex County, N.J., in which Bruce Nagel claims Judith Wahrenberger, his adversary in a medical malpractice case, acted tortiously by asking a husband whether he felt his wife had played a role in the death of their infant daughter by handling the child roughly.
"Wahrenberger's unsupported and intentional attack upon the parents was beyond any acceptable behavior of a civilized human being," alleges Nagel, of Nagel Rice in Roseland, N.J.
Wahrenberger, the attorney for an emergency room physician at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, N.J., says she had an obligation to pursue the line of questioning because an autopsy showed the baby had a subarachnoid brain hemorrhage, which can be a sign of shaken-baby syndrome.
Details here from the New Jersey Law Journal via Law.com.