Injured patient rejects reduced $10 million malpractice award, opts for new trial

A St. Cloud State University college student who won a landmark medical malpractice case last year has rejected a judge's decision to cut his jury award from $110 million to $10 million and will seek a new trial.

In what was by far the largest award of its kind in Minnesota, a Minneapolis federal jury in May 2022 granted Anuj Thapa $111.3 million in damages, including $110 million for pain and suffering.

Calling the $110 million award "shockingly excessive," federal Judge Tony Leung ruled in October that Thapa must accept a $10 million award for pain and suffering or the case would be retried.

Thapa has opted for a new trial, according to a recent court filing.

"While we respect the court's order, we didn't think it properly recognizes the full scope of his injuries, and it didn't fully embrace the importance of jury verdicts in the civil justice system," said Thapa's lawyer, Brandon Thompson of Ciresi Conlin LLP in Minneapolis.

Thompson added that Thapa couldn't appeal Leung's ruling if he accepted the $10 million award, but he can after a second trial.

The jury found that negligent care after a soccer injury in 2017 had left Thapa with extreme pain and permanent disability. St. Cloud Orthopedic Associates, the defendant, asked for a new trial or a substantial cut in the jury's award, claiming it was "shockingly excessive."

Leung agreed and used the same language in his ruling.

"The evidence introduced at trial does not justify such an astronomical award," he wrote.

The judge's ruling does not affect the jury's $1.25 million award to Thapa for economic damages.

Thapa, then a 19-year-old college student, was injured after a player tackled him during a pickup soccer match at St. Cloud State University. He had arrived in Minnesota only three weeks earlier from his native Nepal.

The night after his injury, Thapa underwent surgery at St. Cloud Hospital for a badly broken leg. He was discharged the next day, but he returned to the hospital six days later with unbearable pain, his lawsuit claimed.

Another doctor re-opened Thapa's leg and found "acute compartment syndrome," a medical emergency that can cause severe tissue damage, according to the suit. The muscles in Thapa's leg were gray in color.

The suit claimed caregivers affiliated with St. Cloud Orthopedics failed to appropriately discharge Thapa from the hospital and to suitably diagnose and treat Thapa's acute compartment syndrome.

Thapa is currently completing his St. Cloud State degree remotely, Thompson said.