This podcast is provided by Ben Glass and Steve Emmert www.BenGlassReferrals.com - www.Virginia-Appeals.com   Granted Appeal Summary Case SHEA CURTIS, ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ESTATE OF MARY JO CURTIS v. CHRISTOPHER HIGHFILL, ET AL. (Record Number 190117) From The Circuit Court of Prince William County. K. Irving, Judge. Counsel Patrick A. Malone and Alfred A. Clarke (Patrick Malone & Associates, P.C.) for appellant. Michael E. Olszewski, Benjamin M. Wengerd, Rodney S. Dillman, and Julie C. Mayer (Hancock, Daniel & Johnson, P.C.) for appellees. Assignment of Error 1. The trial court erred by misinterpreting the standard for, incorrectly prejudging, and ultimately striking Ms. Curtis’ punitive damages claim, despite ample evidence in the trial record to support a finding by the jury of Dr. Highfill’s “willful and wanton” disregard for Mary Jo Curtis’ health and safety, given Dr. Highfill’s admissions that he had actual conscious awareness of the high risk of prescribing long-term Schedule II narcotics to his patient with bipolar disorder and a history of alcohol abuse, yet nonetheless wrote prescriptions on 144 separate occasions amounting to more than 7,000 opioid pills, and failed to ever examine her the last 52 times he wrote prescriptions in the 14 months before her death from an accidental overdose. www.courts.state.va.us/courts/scv/appeals/190117.pdf