Citing witness intimidation, Mason doctor seeks to void settlement | West Virginia Record

Dr. Danny Westmoreland seizes on allegations made in Tommy Fouty's wrongful termination suit to re-open medical malpractice suit against Dr. Shrikant K. Vaidya.

Former lab tech says doctor falsified med mal affidavit | West Virginia Record

Millwood resident Tommy Fouty alleges, after six years of employment, Dr. Shirkant Vaidya fired him for objecting to false, and misleading statement in Westmoreland suit.

Musgrave admonished for co-mingling settlement funds

CHARLESTON - The state Supreme Court has sanctioned a Point Pleasant attorney for mishandling the proceeds of a settlement awarded to a Mason County physician five years ago.

Finding that he "co-mingled client finds with his own business funds," a hearing panel subcommittee of the Lawyer Disciplinary Board, the prosecutorial arm of the state Bar, recommended Raymond G. Musgrave be reprimanded for his action.

In addition to a reprimand, the Board also recommended the Court order Musgrave's practice to be supervised for a year, he establish a client trust account with the Bar's Foundation, complete six additional hours of continuing education in the area of law office management and pay the cost of the disciplinary proceeding.

For more on this story, go to The West Virginia Record

Staffing privilege dispute results in suit against hospital, fellow physicians

HUNTINGTON - A Mason County family physician is alleging that officials at Pleasant Valley Hospital conspired to harm his ability to practice medicine by revoking his staffing privileges without justification.

The suit raises similar allegations a Charleston surgeon leveled at the state's largest hospital resulting in a multi-million verdict in his favor last year.

For more on this story, go to The West Virginia Record

Starcher refers to MPLA as a 'monster' in Mason med mal opinion

Though the state Supreme Court was correct in remanding a malpractice case from Mason County back to the circuit court, one of the justices said the piece of reform legislation that gave rise the suit has become a Frankenstein "monster."

For more on this story, go to The West Virginia Record

Musgrave previously sanctioned over '79 plane crash settlement

CHARLESTON - Failing to return a settlement check is not the only time a Point Pleasant attorney has mishandled legal matters involving a physician. Nearly 20 years ago, Raymond G. Musgrave had to answer for "gross incompetency" in settling the estate of a doctor and his wife who died in the worst single-airplane crash in American history.

On April 4, the Lawyer Disciplinary Board, the prosecutorial arm of the state Bar Association, filed a formal state of charges against Musgrave with the state Supreme Court. In its statement, the Board found probable cause that Musgrave violated at least two Rules of Professional Conduct in not turning over $15,000 awarded to Dr. Danny R. Westmoreland in 2004. The statement of charges, records show, came almost three years to the day Westmoreland filed his complaint with Musgrave with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the Bar's investigative arm.

The Bar took three years to investigate a complaint filed against Musgrave in 1988 by the family members of Dr. Roy and Marian E. Eshenaur. The family accused Musgrave of "gross incompetency" in not properly settling the Eshenaur's estates nine years after they died in a 1979 plane crash in Chicago. In 1991, the Bar closed its investigation into the Eshenaur family's complaint finding merit to their allegations.

Alcohol played an apparent role in Musgrave's conduct as the Bar ordered Musgrave to abstain from consuming it, and into recovery treatment.

For more on this story, go to The West Virginia Record.

Photo: An amateur picture of American Airlines Flight 191 taken moments before it crashed at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on May 25, 1979 killing all 271 passengers and crew members aboard, includingMason County residents Dr. Roy and Marian E. Eshenaur