Georgia’s largest provider of medical malpractice insurance has agreed to pay a $4.9 million judgment rendered against a metro Atlanta physician and his medical clinic, even though the clinic’s insurance policies had a combined $2 million ceiling, according to the medical malpractice lawyer who secured the winning verdict.

On Tuesday, attorneys for Georgia MAG Mutual Insurance finalized the agreement to pay nearly $3 million above the medical malpractice policies’ ceiling to the family of 78-year-old Ok Hui Smith, said the Smith family’s attorney, David Krugler. The agreement followed a June 29 jury verdict that awarded Smith’s husband, Thomas Smith Sr., $4.7 million in damages stemming from the death of his wife from the side effects of Nizoral, a powerful and potentially toxic drug that caused her liver and kidneys to fail, Krugler said.

'Extraordinarily unusual'

U.S. District Judge Richard Story on Monday increased the jury’s June 29 award to $4.9 million with an order directing that the final judgment against physician William H. Van Laar and his clinic, McDonough Primary Care, also include an additional $200,000 in prejudgment interest. Under Georgia law, Smith is entitled to prejudgment interest in addition to the jury award because his lawyers had made offers to settle the case that were rejected.

Krugler said that MAG Mutual lawyers agreed to cover the entire judgment, despite policy limits that would otherwise have left Van Laar and his clinic on the hook for nearly $3 million, because MAG Mutual repeatedly turned down Krugler’s offers to settle the case for $2 million — the combined limit of two malpractice policies held by Van Laar’s clinic that also covered the physician.