Jury awards damages to physician in slander case
BY BILL BRAUN World Staff Writer
Friday, October 12, 2012
A Tulsa County jury awarded more than $442,000 in damages Thursday to a physician on claims of slander and interference with his business.
The plaintiffs, Dr. Stephen
Kovacs and Urgent Care of
Green Country, were granted $
221,351 in damages from
Transport Workers Union
of America, Local 514, on a
claim of intentional interference
with a business relationship.
Jurors awarded another
verdict for $221,351 in damages
to the plaintiffs on a
claim of slander by another
defendant, Mark Warren.
Warren, a member of the
union, sustained a work-
related injury and was referred
by his employer,
American Airlines, to Kovacs
for treatment at his clinic in
2010.
According to a “statement
of facts” for the plaintiffs
in a pretrial order, Warren
became agitated and began
yelling after presenting
forms, required by his employer,
for Kovacs to complete.
At some point, Kovacs, a
reserve police officer for the
city of Owasso, left the exam
room.
When it became clear that
Warren did not intend to
leave as requested, Kovacs
returned to the exam room
“with his badge on his belt
and his duty weapon on his
hip, locked in its holster,”
and escorted Warren from
the clinic, the plaintiffs asserted
in a court document.
Warren took this “as a
threat and an assault and
was placed in fear,” according
to the defendants’ statement
of facts in the pretrial
order.
Kovacs did not assault
Warren, said attorney Chad
Neuens, representing the
doctor and clinic.
Jurors returned verdicts
in favor of Kovacs on Warren’s
civil claims against him
of assault and intentional infliction
of emotional distress.
Kovacs asserted that Warren
misrepresented the facts
of what happened.
Ultimately, American Airlines
removed Kovacs and
his business from a list of authorized
providers.
Attorney Frank Frasier,
representing TWU and Warren,
maintained in a closing
argument that Kovacs “behaved
badly” and “should
not be rewarded for it."
The verdicts concluded a
trial in District Judge Rebecca
Nightingale’s court.
Bill Braun 918-581-8455
bill.braun@tulsaworld.com
