On November 29, 2022, John Paganini filed a complaint for medical malpractice against Gregory J. Louis, M.D. and his medical practice that alleged that after Dr. Louis performed cataract surgery on Paganini, Dr. Louis failed to diagnose
endophthalmitis (an infection) during his December 10, 2021 appointment, and that Dr. Louis should have referred him to a retina specialist at that time. Paganini alleged that he sustained permanent substantial injury as a result of the defendants’ negligence. He also alleged that R.C. 2323.43(A)(3), which places a cap of $500,000 on noneconomic damages that may be recovered for serious injuries resulting from medical malpractice, is unconstitutional as applied to him personally.
The Ohio medical malpractice jury awarded damages to Paganini in the amount of $1,487,500 for past and future noneconomic damages, further finding that Paganini’s injury constituted a loss of a “bodily organ system” and a “substantial physical deformity.”
R.C. 2323.43(A)
R.C. 2323.43(A) creates a two-tiered system imposing limits on the award of noneconomic damages depending on the severity of the plaintiff’s injury. Under the first tier, a cap of $250,000 applies to certain types of injuries. R.C. 2323.43(A)(2). Under the second tier, the limit is increased to $500,000 if the plaintiff establishes that he or she sustained a “permanent and substantial physical deformity, loss of use of a limb, or loss of a bodily organ system” and/or a
“permanent physical functional injury that permanently prevents the injured person from being able to independently care for self and perform life sustaining activities.” R.C. 2323.43(A)(3).
The Court of Appeals of Ohio Eighth Appellate District held in its Journal Entry and Opinion dated January 30, 2025: “The legislature has failed to demonstrate how capping noneconomic damages for a very small group of highly injured people, which includes Paganini, will have any impact on malpractice insurance rates beyond those provided by the cap on less severe injuries. Therefore, Paganini has overcome the presumption of constitutionality and established, by clear and convincing evidence, that applying the cap on noneconomic damages set forth in R.C. 2323.43(A)(3) to him does not bear a real and substantial relationship to medical-malpractice insurance rates. The $500,000 cap on noneconomic damages for catastrophic injuries is also arbitrary and unreasonable … Therefore, Paganini has shown by clear and convincing evidence that R.C. 2323.43(A)(3)’s cap on noneconomic damages is arbitrary and unreasonable and that applying that cap to him violates his rights under the due course of law clause in the Ohio Constitution.”
Source Paganini v. Cataract Eye Ctr. of Cleveland, 2025-Ohio-275.
If you or a loved one may have been injured (or worse) as a result of medical negligence in Ohio or in another U.S. state, you should promptly seek the legal advice of an Ohio medical malpractice attorney, or a medical malpractice attorney in your state, who may investigate your medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
Click here to visit our website or call us on our toll-free line in the United States (800-295-3959) to be connected with medical malpractice lawyers in your state who may be willing to help you with your medical malpractice claim.
Turn to us when you don’t know where to turn.
