Moore v. Mercy Med. Ctr.

CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJune 23, 2026
Docket2024-1212
StatusPublished

This text of Moore v. Mercy Med. Ctr. (Moore v. Mercy Med. Ctr.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moore v. Mercy Med. Ctr., (Ohio 2026).

Opinion

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as Moore v. Mercy Med. Ctr., Slip Opinion No. 2026-Ohio-2293.]

NOTICE This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in an advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports. Readers are requested to promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 65 South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or other formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is published.

SLIP OPINION NO. 2026-OHIO-2293 MOORE, INDIVIDUALLY AND AS PARENT, NATURAL GUARDIAN, AND NEXT FRIEND OF P.C.M., A MINOR, APPELLANT, v. MERCY MEDICAL CENTER ET AL., APPELLEES. [Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as Moore v. Mercy Med. Ctr., Slip Opinion No. 2026-Ohio-2293.] Civil law—Summary judgment—Sham-affidavit rule—When an expert incorporates his Civ.R. 26(B)(7) expert report by reference into a properly framed affidavit, he adopts the contents of the report as part of the sworn affidavit for purposes of Civ.R. 56—Once an expert’s report is properly before a court through a sworn affidavit, the court may assess the consistency of the opinions in the report and the affidavit under the sham- affidavit rule—Expert’s affidavit contradicted the opinions expressed his prior report without sufficient explanation, so trial court acted within its discretion by striking the affidavit under sham-affidavit rule—Court of appeals’ judgment affirmed. (No. 2024-1212—Submitted August 19, 2025—Decided June 23, 2026.) SUPREME COURT OF OHIO

APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Stark County, No. 2023 CA 00145, 2024-Ohio-2610. __________________ HAWKINS, J., authored the opinion of the court, which KENNEDY, C.J., and DEWINE, DETERS, and SHANAHAN, JJ., joined. FISCHER, J., dissented, with an opinion joined by BRUNNER, J.

HAWKINS, J. {¶ 1} Following a prolonged labor, appellant, Cheri Sheree Moore, gave birth to her son, P.C.M., who required intubation because he was in respiratory distress. Moore alleges that the respiratory distress and intubation caused injuries to P.C.M. Moore filed a medical-malpractice complaint against the hospital where she delivered the baby and against two physicians who were involved in her labor and delivery. {¶ 2} One of the physicians, appellee Godwin Meniru, M.D., moved for summary judgment after Moore’s expert concluded in his report that the alleged malpractice occurred during a time when Dr. Meniru was not on duty. In opposition, Moore filed an affidavit from the same expert stating that Dr. Meniru committed malpractice by failing to deliver the child within a certain time of his taking over Moore’s care. This opinion was not included in the expert’s original report. Dr. Meniru moved to strike the affidavit, arguing that it contradicted the opinions contained in the expert’s report and was offered solely to create a genuine issue of material fact, in violation of the sham-affidavit rule. The trial court agreed and granted both Dr. Meniru’s motion to strike and his motion for summary judgment. The Fifth District Court of Appeals affirmed. {¶ 3} Moore contends that the trial court abused its discretion by striking the expert’s affidavit under the sham-affidavit rule, arguing that the rule is inapplicable because the affidavit contradicted only the expert’s earlier unsworn

2 January Term, 2026

report and thus raises an issue of the affidavit’s credibility or weight, not its admissibility. {¶ 4} We disagree. Because the expert incorporated his report into his affidavit, both documents were properly before the trial court on summary judgment and subject to the sham-affidavit rule. The trial court therefore acted within its discretion by striking the contradictory affidavit. We affirm the judgment of the court of appeals. BACKGROUND {¶ 5} Moore was admitted to appellee Mercy Medical Center on May 27, 2015, to deliver her son, P.C.M. Dr. Meniru was the physician on duty at the time Moore was admitted. Dr. Meniru started Moore on Pitocin to induce her labor. {¶ 6} Dr. Meniru’s shift ended at 7:00 a.m. on May 28, 2015, and Moore’s care was transferred to appellee Dr. Albert Domingo, who examined Moore during the beginning of his shift. Although the nurses continued to administer Pitocin in accordance with the doctors’ orders, Moore’s labor did not progress. Moore alleges that by 6:00 p.m. on May 28, there were signs of fetal intolerance to labor and excessive uterine activity. During his shift on May 28, Dr. Domingo received updates from the nursing staff regarding Moore’s labor, including the signs of fetal intolerance to labor, but he did not conduct another physical examination of Moore. {¶ 7} Dr. Meniru took over Moore’s care again at 7:00 a.m. on May 29, 2015, and upon receiving reports of fetal distress by the hospital staff, stopped the Pitocin and ordered an emergency cesarean section (“C-section”). P.C.M. was delivered at 8:57 a.m. on May 29, 2015. P.C.M. was intubated and transferred to Akron Children’s Hospital, where he was diagnosed with stridor and vocal-cord paralysis. {¶ 8} In her 2022 deposition, Moore testified that P.C.M. had undergone a tracheotomy shortly after his birth. She further testified that he experiences

3 SUPREME COURT OF OHIO

seizures, which are followed by temporary paralysis, has sensitivity to lights and sounds, exhibits speech delays, and has behavioral outbursts. {¶ 9} In her amended complaint, Moore alleged that the hospital and the doctors and nurses involved in her labor and delivery deviated from accepted standards of care and caused permanent injuries to her son. {¶ 10} The defendants filed answers and discovery commenced. Moore identified her experts, including Martin Gubernick, M.D., who concluded in his November 2022 expert report (“November 2022 report”) that “Dr. Domingo, Dr. Meniru, [and] the nursing staff all deviated from good and acceptable practice by not advocating for a C-section in the evening of 5-28-2015. The standard of care required a C-section by [7:00 p.m. on 5-28-2015] . . . .” {¶ 11} Dr. Meniru moved for summary judgment, asserting that he had not been involved in Moore’s care on the evening of May 28, 2015, when according to Dr. Gubernick a C-section should have been performed. {¶ 12} As part of her memorandum opposing Dr. Meniru’s motion for summary judgment, Moore submitted an affidavit sworn by Dr. Gubernick in April 2023 (“April 2023 affidavit”), which expressly incorporated his November 2022 report. In the affidavit, Dr. Gubernick averred: “I provided my written expert report on November 16, 2022. A true and accurate copy of this report is attached to this affidavit as Exhibit 2.” In the April 2023 affidavit, Dr. Gubernick offered the additional opinion that “[a]t a minimum, Dr. Meniru fell below the standard of care by failing to begin a [C-section] delivery within 30 minutes of receiving reports of fetal distress. . . . The delay in performing a [C-section] delivery caused and contributed to the respiratory distress of the child.” {¶ 13} Dr. Meniru filed a motion to strike the April 2023 affidavit, arguing that it introduced a new opinion that was contradictory to Dr. Gubernick’s November 2022 report, in violation of the sham-affidavit rule.

4 January Term, 2026

{¶ 14} The trial court granted Dr. Meniru’s motion to strike and his motion for summary judgment. {¶ 15} Moore dismissed without prejudice the claims against the remaining defendants and appealed to the Fifth District, arguing that the trial court erred by striking Dr. Gubernick’s affidavit and granting Dr. Meniru’s motion for summary judgment. {¶ 16} The Fifth District held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion by striking the April 2023 affidavit, because it contained a new and contradictory opinion regarding Dr.

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Moore v. Mercy Med. Ctr., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moore-v-mercy-med-ctr-ohio-2026.