Speedup of Malpractice Case Rejected

Los Angeles County attorneys, after pledging to move toward conclusion of an embarrassing medical malpractice lawsuit prompted by the death of a Northridge infant, have rejected an offer that would have avoided a delay of three or more years.

The attorney representing the child’s parents has offered to pay the estimated $20,000 that it would cost to hire a private judge so a trial could begin next year, but county lawyers have refused.

The case now is set for trial in San Fernando Superior Court on June 8, 1995, more than five years after 5-day-old Steven Ruiz, who was born at the county’s Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar, died of an unnoticed birth defect.

During unusually contentious pretrial litigation, attorneys for the county and for one of the three nursing registries named in the suit claimed that a healthy baby born at Olive View was switched with a fatally ill infant who had been born elsewhere.

Lacking evidence to prove that claim, the county last June ordered sophisticated genetic tests of tissue collected from the fetus and Patricia Chavez, 17, and her boyfriend, Reynaldo Ruiz, 21. The tests determined that they likely were the dead baby’s parents.

After the tests, Assistant County Counsel Robert Ambrose said “there’s been enough on this. . . . We would like to see if we can conclude it if we can.” But two mediation sessions before retired Superior Court Judge Robert Nye failed to produce a settlement.

Aileen N. Goldstein, the Burbank attorney representing the dead child’s parents, said: “Justice delayed is justice denied.”

Robert Alaniz, a spokesman for Supervisor Gloria Molina, said Thursday that the offer was rejected because hiring a private judge would not allow the county to appeal if exorbitant damages were awarded the plaintiffs.

San Fernando Superior Court Presiding Judge David M. Schacter said a shortage of judges and a growing burden of criminal cases, which take precedence over civil cases, mean that delays of four years or longer before the start of civil trials are commonplace.

“If there is cooperation among the parties, there are many alternatives” for bringing litigation to a close, including the hiring of private judges, said Schacter. “If there is a vitriolic relationship between the parties . . . there will be delays.”

Goldstein originally sought $250,000 in damages for the medical malpractice that she alleges led to the baby’s death. The lawyer, who is also requesting unspecified additional damages, said a settlement offer made by the county was “outrageously low.” She declined to reveal the amount.

Attorneys for the county confirmed that they have rejected the offer to hire a private judge.