~$550K Award Related to Doctor's Allegedly False Accusation of Nose Punch by Colleague

Some excerpts from Thursday’s long decision in Zafar v. Saghier, by Texas Court of Appeals Justice Wade Birdwell, joined by Justices Mike Wallach and Brian Walker:

Appellant Sunbal Zafar claimed that her fellow doctor, Appellee Sadaf Saghier, hit her in the nose at the medical practice where they worked, and she reported the alleged assault to the Texas Medical Board and to the police. But the Texas Medical Board dismissed Zafar’s complaint, and although the police initially arrested Saghier for felony aggravated assault, the district attorney’s office later reduced and then dismissed the criminal charges against Saghier.

So, when Zafar sued Saghier for civil damages for the alleged assault, Saghier counterclaimed for malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The jury sided with Saghier and awarded her $1 million in compensatory and exemplary damages.

In what we construe as three overarching issues, Zafar asserts that (1) the evidence was insufficient to support the compensatory damages awarded for Saghier’s criminal attorney’s fees and mental anguish; (2) the award of exemplary damages was premised on a defective jury charge and, regardless, must be adjusted in accordance with the statutory cap if this court reverses any of the compensatory-damage awards; and (3) the trial court abused its discretion by allowing Saghier’s counsel to ask her leading questions.

Saghier concedes that the damage award for her criminal attorney’s fees lacked sufficient evidentiary support, and the record reveals that the award for future mental anguish also lacked sufficient evidentiary support. These flawed awards, in turn, require a reduction of the exemplary-damages award in accordance with the statutory cap. With these modifications of the judgment, we will affirm….

The pivotal incident occurred at the parties’ medical practice in April 2022. According to Zafar, Saghier grabbed her hand “hard,” alluded to a rent-related issue, and hit her in the face. {Zafar was taken to the hospital, where tests revealed a nasal fracture. The fracture’s age was ambiguous and disputed.} According to Saghier, she never touched Zafar or referenced rent; instead, Zafar “pounded hard on the table,” alluded to a prior complaint that Saghier had made about Zafar to the practice’s leadership {regarding damaged office items and Saghier’s suspicion that Zafar had caused the damage}, then screamed and accused Saghier of hitting her.

Saghier immediately called both the practice’s leadership and 911. Police body-camera footage from that day showed Saghier relaying her side of the story, asking the police to swab her hands and Zafar’s nose to establish her innocence, and attempting to diffuse tension between Zafar’s husband and her own (both of whom arrived at the medical practice after the incident).

Saghier later testified that, as soon as the police responded to Zafar’s accusation of assault, she “kn[e]w what [wa]s at stake”—her “whole life[; her] license [wa]s at stake.” By the time she arrived home that evening, she was “desperate” for professional mental help. She explained to the jury that she had “two small kids” and was “the breadwinner of the family,” and after the incident, she “[c]ould not cry … [or] sleep” and “d[id]n’t even know how to handle this.” She found a psychiatrist who had availability “the very next day” and scheduled an appointment.

The psychiatrist’s records—which were later admitted into evidence at trial—described Saghier as “very anxious” and “tearful” at the appointment. The records noted that Saghier was suffering from “poor appetite, poor sleep, [and] anhedonia,” i.e., “los[s of] the ability to enjoy the things [she] usually d[id].”

Meanwhile, the practice’s leadership told Saghier “not to come back to the office,” and Zafar reported Saghier’s alleged assault to the Texas Medical Board. Within a day of the incident, a surgical facility where Saghier practiced had “precautionarily suspended” her privileges due to “an immediate risk of substantial harm to the health and safety” of those who worked there. The surgery center asked Saghier to undergo a fitness-to-practice evaluation, and Saghier took a leave of absence to do so.

But the fallout continued. Less than two weeks after the incident, Zafar hired an attorney to sue Saghier for assault, and the attorney sent Saghier a letter informing her of the impending litigation and asking her to preserve evidence. Saghier’s psychiatrist’s notes reflected that, not long thereafter, Saghier began suffering from “nightmares, crying spells, [a] sense of helplessness, insomnia, [and] flashbacks,” as well as “intrusive, invasive, or unwanted thoughts” and “feelings of loneliness, isolation, hopelessness/worthlessness.” The psychiatrist diagnosed Saghier with “PTSD” and “[a]djustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood.” She prescribed Saghier medication for her anxiety and PTSD.

As this was happening, Zafar was also working with the police to pursue Saghier’s criminal prosecution. About two months after the incident—in June 2022—the police issued a warrant for Saghier’s arrest for felony aggravated assault. Saghier later told the jury that, in an attempt to protect her children, she waited until they went to sleep before turning herself in on the warrant. She spent the night in jail where, according to Saghier, she was strip-searched and had her mugshot taken. She described jail as the “[w]ors[t] experience” and recounted an illustrative anecdote about being told that “there [had been] a murder in the room [she was in] between the two inmates,” and the “other people [in the jail room with her we]re laughing about murder cases, [and about] how they have been in and out.”

The district attorney later reduced the charge against Saghier to a misdemeanor. But the reduced charge did not stop Saghier’s mugshot from spreading throughout her social and professional community, nor did it spare her the expenses associated with defending herself in court, such as the cost of paying her criminal defense attorney. {Saghier’s fitness-to-practice evaluation report reflected that “Dr. Zafar’s husband ha[d] shared her mugshot with their social group.”}

These expenses were particularly difficult given the limitations on Saghier’s ability to practice medicine. Although Saghier had completed her fitness-to-practice evaluation and a psychiatrist—Dr. Douglas Crowder—had found her fit to practice, Saghier lost her privileges at several surgical facilities due to the criminal case. Plus, between the criminal case and the still-pending Texas Medical Board complaint, she had trouble securing malpractice insurance.

Ultimately, about nine months after the alleged incident—on the day before her criminal case was set for trial—the district attorney’s office dismissed the charges against her. Although Saghier objected to the dismissal out of a desire to prove her innocence, the trial court overruled her objection.

After Saghier’s criminal case was dismissed, she stopped seeing her psychiatrist. The psychiatrist had recommended that she continue therapy, noting that “recovery from … trauma of this nature can take months to years,” but Saghier’s expenses were adding up. As Saghier later told the jury, the psychiatrist visits were “self-paid, cash,” and Saghier “could not afford any more” appointments.

But Saghier’s troubles were not over. It took another four months before the Texas Medical Board completed its investigation and dismissed Zafar’s complaint for lack of evidence. And even then, because some surgical facilities denied privileges to anyone who had either been charged with a crime or failed to promptly report being charged with a crime, Saghier permanently lost her privileges at three surgical facilities….

Additionally, Zafar’s civil suit against Saghier was still pending. So, at that point, Saghier counterclaimed for malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

At trial, Saghier described Zafar’s accusation as a “nightmare,” and she testified to everything she had been through—her termination from her medical practice, her loss of privileges at three surgical facilities, her medical license’s suspension, her arrest on false charges, her strip-search and night in jail, her mugshot’s proliferation in her community, her depletion of savings, her inability to provide for her family, and her need for psychiatric help through it all….

[T]he jury found that Zafar had both maliciously prosecuted Saghier and intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon her. It assessed $462,022 in exemplary damages for Zafar’s malicious prosecution…. [It] awarded $537,978 in compensatory damages for both torts, including $15,095 for Saghier’s criminal attorney’s fees; $12,875 for other economic damages; $255,004 for Saghier’s past mental anguish; and $255,004 for Saghier’s future mental anguish. The trial court rendered judgment accordingly, awarding Saghier an even $1 million in damages….

The court affirmed some parts of the award but not other parts, ultimately concluding:

Because we have concluded that there was legally insufficient evidence to support the jury’s awards of $15,095 in economic damages for Saghier’s criminal attorney’s fees and $255,004 in noneconomic damages for Saghier’s future mental anguish, Saghier’s remaining economic damages total $12,875 (for past medical expenses and miscellaneous criminal-prosecution-related fees) and her noneconomic damages total $255,004 (for past mental anguish). Saghier’s exemplary damages are thus statutorily capped at $280,754.

As I count it, this brings the award to a titch under $550K. For more on the legal analysis, see the opinion.

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