MOUNT VERNON – Ten years after lawyer Jack Quarant died, Fifth District appellate judges found he committed malpractice ten years before he died.
On Aug. 29, they found Saline County associate judge Todd Lambert properly ordered Quarant’s estate to pay $250,000 to Ricky Williams and Julie Williams.
Ricky and Julie sued Quarant in 2005, after he failed to obtain judgment against Hardin County over the birth and death of their baby.
As pregnant Julie watched television from a recliner on Nov. 30, 2000, she felt a pull that spread from her lower abdomen to her back.
She tried lying on the floor and in the tub but the pain increased.
Ricky drove her to Hardin County Hospital in Rosiclare, where a doctor ordered blood and urine tests.
Julie urinated and noticed blood.
She asked a doctor to send her to another hospital and he ordered transfer to Memorial Hospital in Carbondale where her pediatrician practiced.
A Hardin County ambulance arrived and took off with a nurse at Julie’s side.
Ricky followed with Julie’s sister, a niece, and a friend in the vehicle.
They didn’t get far before Julie said she didn’t think she’d make it to Carbondale and the nurse asked the crew to turn around.
The driver could have turned around safely a few hundred yards away but rushed across a median and into mud.
The crew and Ricky’s group pushed and the ambulance only threw mud on them while Julie’s water broke.
A second ambulance took Julie to a hospital in Harrisburg, closer than Carbondale.
A nurse told her the baby died.
In 2002, Quarant filed a complaint in Saline County circuit court.
Hardin County moved to dismiss on grounds that a statute of limitations expired after a year.
A judge granted the motion.
Ricky and Julie filed a malpractice complaint in 2005 and a judge granted summary judgment on negligence in 2006.
Quarant moved to add an affirmative defense in 2010, claiming Ricky and Julie wouldn’t have recovered even if he sued within a year.
He claimed state law on medical emergencies immunized the county in the absence of willful and wanton misconduct.
He died in 2012.
Lambert held bench trial in 2017, and admitted an affidavit of physician Fred Duboe from Hoffman Estates.
He swore Hardin County Hospital should have examined and tested Julie or arranged prompt transfer to a better hospital.
He swore the delay in the median further reduced chances of survival.
Julie and Ricky, no longer married, testified about the event and its effects.
After trial they amended the complaint to allege willful and wanton misconduct at the hospital and in the ambulance.
Quarant’s estate answered with admissions that the median was muddy and that delays made the conditions of Julie and her baby increasingly severe.
Lambert entered judgment that Ricky and Julie could have recovered $250,000 but for Quarant’s negligence.
Appellate judges Judy Cates, Thomas Welch, and Randy Moore affirmed Lambert.
“Considering the circumstances as a whole, the trial court did not err in entering judgment in favor of the plaintiffs as there was sufficient evidence of willful and wanton misconduct by Hardin County and the Hardin County ambulance service,” Cates wrote.
Mark Prince of Marion represented Ricky and Julie Williams. James Hopkins of Marion represented the estate.
Former judge Brad Henshaw presided until he retired.