Negligence – Wrongful Birth

Hall v. Dartmouth Hitchcock Med. Ctr., No. 2004-708 (N.H. Apr. 25, 2006)

The Supreme Court of New Hampshire found that a medical center could not be held liable for a wrongful birth claim where it gave a patient timely and sufficient notice of possible birth defects. A family was awarded $2.3 million dollars by a jury in a wrongful birth claim where the child suffered a rare genetic defect, so rare that it was the first reported occurrence of such an abnormality. The medical center was denied post-verdict motions by the trial court and appealed. The New Hampshire Supreme Court reversed the trial court's denial and set aside the verdict, finding that, while the medical center did not discover and disclose a specific diagnosis, it did disclose to the mother during her second trimester that there was an increased possibility that the child would suffer from serious birth defects. Furthermore, the court found the medical center acted in a timely manner in making its disclosure, as there was no evidence presented that it could have provided this information any sooner than it did.