Thanks to the jurors for carefully deliberated verdict
As published on PennLive 6/24/24: https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2024/06/thanks-to-the-jurors-for-their-carefully-deliberated-verdict-against-penn-state-health-opinion.html
Dear Jury members,
If you are anything like most people, most of you probably grumbled when you got the summons in the mail from Dauphin County notifying you to show up for jury selection. Granted, a few TV court drama junkies light up over the opportunity to participate in real life, but for most U.S. citizens over 18 years of age, it is merely an obligatory right and duty to serve as a juror.
You made it onto the jury for a civil suit you were told should run about four days – except that on the third day that dragged into the night before concluding at 8 p.m., the judge announced that the trial would have to extend beyond the Memorial Day weekend. At least after the third day of trial, you got a slight bump in pay for the last four days – from $9/day the first three days to $25/day after that. Woohoo!
No doubt, some of this trial pitting a demoted Penn State orthopedic surgeon against his employer and former boss in a case of wrongful removal from his duties as the orthopedic consultant to the Penn State football team and director of athletic medicine for all 31 Penn State sports was interesting. Some of it was also dry and repetitious.
Many of you stayed engaged throughout the entire seven-day saga. You not only took your charge seriously, but you also were truly caught up in trying to find the truth. I could see the concern, disbelief, empathy, frustration, and disappointment on your faces. I especially sympathized with the one among you who had a back condition requiring you to stand for about half of the time during this long trial. I felt thankful for the red-haired juror with the kind smile.
I am the wife of the plaintiff, Scott Lynch. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for sifting through the days of testimonies, documents, emails, facts, and fictions. I listened to all of it, too. Even though I knew the truth – the truth that you found – I found myself worried that it wasn’t always made as clear as it could have been. That’s because I had lived it, including the smaller details. My husband’s attorney clearly knew what was necessary and what was not.
The defense tried to make it seem that my husband chose to leave State College late every Sunday afternoon to return to Hershey just because he wanted to – like we were going home to vacation every week, when in fact, we had to return Sunday evening so he could get up to see patients in clinic Monday morning in Hershey before doing surgeries on Tuesdays and more clinic on Wednesday. Then he would drive back to State College Wednesday night (after a full day of work in Hershey) and work all day Thursdays-Sunday afternoons there. There was no Hershey vacation. In fact, there was no vacation at all.
The defense contended that my husband was removed from his positions with Penn State athletics because he refused to spend more time in State College, and his chairman told you on the stand that was the case. Yet, his chairman never asked my husband if he’d be willing to work more days in State College. He never offered to relieve him of some of his many duties in Hershey to free up more time for him to attend to his Penn State duties. In fact, in addition to holding clinics on Mondays and Wednesdays and doing surgery on Tuesdays, he was also the administrator for the Adult Bone and Joint Clinic, the head of sports medicine, and an associate director of the residency program.
He pretty much worked seven-day weeks year-round. While not officially “on call,” he essentially responded to needs and concerns whenever and wherever needed.
In the end, I shouldn’t have worried because our attorney knew what he was doing and you were paying attention. I took the burn of the defense’s lies personally, so it was hard for me to see it as you did.
Regardless of the outcome, even if you had ruled against my husband, I would have applauded you for your devotion and hard work. Of course, that’s easy for me to say since you did render the verdict I had hoped for for so long – five long years of limbo. But truly, I just didn’t know until your foreperson read off the counts how it would go. I had listened to all the same testimony you had listened to. I knew much of the defense testimonies to be hedged or false, but I didn’t know if you did. Thank you for considering it carefully.
And now, weeks after the ruling, I’m sorry that your careful work is being challenged by Penn State Health and Dr. Kevin Black who have filed a motion for post-trial relief, asking the judge to vacate your entire verdict and to modify the $5 million in punitive damages you awarded. Their last-ditch effort to invalidate your time and judgment is an afront to our country’s justice system. I’m sorry.
Deborah Lynch
