Atlanta Emergency Servs. LLC v. Clark

The trial court properly found that the termination provision in the parties' written agreement was ambiguous and that the evidence supported the jury's conclusion that the defendant-hospital's immediate termination of the plaintiff-physician's employment breached the agreement.

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Linda Clark, M.D., sued Atlanta Emergency Services, LLC “AES”, alleging that AES breached a contract between the parties when it terminated her employment as an emergency-room physician at Piedmont Hospital. Following a jury verdict and judgment in Dr. Clark’s favor, AES appeals, arguing that the trial court erred in denying its motions for directed verdict and judgment notwithstanding the verdict j.n.o.v.. Specifically, AES contends that no genuine issues of material fact support Dr. Clark’s claims for breach of contract or attorney fees and that the jury’s damages award was unlawful. For the reasons set forth infra, we affirm the jury’s verdict and the trial court’s judgment.

Construed in favor of the jury’s verdict,1 the evidence shows that AES is an operating entity of a private company known as the Schumacher Group, which is engaged in the business of providing emergency-medicine-practice management to both small and large hospitals throughout the southeast. Toward that end, the Schumacher Group, via its operating entities such as AES, contracts with hospitals to provide physician staffing for the hospitals’ emergency departments and does so by recruiting independent-contractor physicians. From July 2010 until April 2012, AES provided Piedmont Hospital with emergency-department physicians pursuant to such a contract.

Atlanta Emergency Servs. LLC v. Clark

The trial court properly found that the termination provision in the parties' written agreement was ambiguous and that the evidence supported the jury's conclusion that the defendant-hospital's immediate termination of the plaintiff-physician's employment breached the agreement.

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