Alexander v. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center System

The negligent advice provided by the defendant physicians was found by the jury to have caused a young woman’s death,5 and the defendants do not contest the sufficiency of the evidence supporting that finding. They now argue, however, that they should escape all or part of the liability for their malpractice because the young woman and her parents were foolish to have followed their bad advice. The majority holds that the trial judge should have charged the jury on this defense. In my view, however, there is no evidence that the girl and her parents were negligent. Their only mistake was to…