Pruitt v. Zeiger

Neurosurgeon Evan Zeiger (defendant) performed a lumbar-disc surgery on Larry Pruitt (plaintiff). Pruitt experienced postsurgical complications that required multiple additional surgeries and eventually led to the removal of part of his lower intestine. Pruitt claimed that the complications were caused by mistakes Zeiger had committed during the lumbar surgery. Pruitt and his wife sued Zeiger in Alabama state court for medical negligence, also called medical malpractice. The Pruitts identified Dr. Lawrence Taylor as their medical expert witness in the case. During Taylor’s pretrial deposition, he was asked multiple times what a reasonably competent neurosurgeon would have done during Pruitt’s surgery. Taylor never directly responded to this question, instead identifying things Taylor believed Pruitt could have or should have done differently. Zeiger moved to exclude Taylor’s testimony. Zeiger argued that Taylor had never established the proper standard of care for the surgery and, therefore, that Taylor’s opinions that Zeiger had breached that unidentified standard were speculative and unfounded. The trial court granted the motion, which left the Pruitts without an expert to establish the appropriate standard of care. Because the Pruitts could not establish this necessary element of their medical-negligence claim, the trial court dismissed the case. The Pruitts appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court.