In this civil action, John Henry Howard sued Dr. William Powell, Boston Medical Group “BMG”, Aaron Hardge, and Boston Men’s Health Center, Inc. “BMHC”, among others, for damages he allegedly suffered as a result of the defendants’ medical malpractice and fraud. The case was tried before a jury, but prior to the conclusion of that trial, Howard dismissed or settled with all defendants except BMHC. Thereafter, the jury rendered a verdict in favor of Howard, awarding him compensatory and punitive damages, and the trial court entered judgment against BMHC. BMHC now appeals, arguing that the trial court erred in 1 instructing the jury on the physician-patient confidential relationship and a physician’s duty to disclose despite the fact that no physician remained as a party and BMHC never employed any physician; 2 failing to grant judgment in BMHC’s favor because Howard did not provide sufficient evidence that BMHC proximately caused his injury; 3 failing to instruct the jury on apportionment of damages; and 4 denying BMHC’s motion for j.n.o.v. as to punitive damages. For the reasons noted infra , we conclude the trial court’s error in instructing the jury on the physician-patient relationship and a physician’s duty to disclose requires reversal, and we therefore remand this case for a retrial consistent with this opinion. At the outset, we note that “this Court reviews the judgment entered by the trial court after approval of a jury verdict upon the any evidence test, absent any material error of law.”1 Additionally, “we review questions of law de novo, applying the plain legal error standard of review.”2
So viewed, the evidence shows that in approximately 1999, Dr. Quoc Ha founded a group of medical clinics to treat erectile dysfunction “ED”, doing business generally as “Boston Medical Group” “BMG”. At that time, there were 22 BMG clinics operating in 13 different states, including one in Atlanta, which did business under the name BMG-Georgia. Boston Men’s Health Center, Inc. “BMHC” —a related but separate entity —was a management company that supplied all non-physician personnel to BMG clinics throughout the country pursuant to a Management Services Agreement. Under that same agreement, BMG was responsible for employing its own physicians.
