Fleig v. Yerovi: A Newark woman who claimed that negligence by her obstetrician and pediatrician caused her son's mental and physical disabilities settled her suit for $1.2 million.
The settlement provides for a $619,388 trust to pay monthly installments of $1,875 and a 3 percent annual cost-of-living increase for the rest of plaintiff Donald Fleig's life. The check was forwarded Wednesday to Nation's Bank, the trustee.

The settlement also provides for $290,796 in counsel fees; $39,816 in disbursements, costs and expenses; and $250,000 for the purchase of a home, renovations, a van and closing costs. That money was received late last month.

Donald, now 18, has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair and has a delayed learning capacity, says his mother's attorney, Walter Curtis, a partner in the Newark office of Hoboken's Baker, Pedersen & Robbins.

Rose Marie Fleig filed suit in Essex County Superior Court in August 1994, claiming that Dr. Luis Yerovi, her obstetrician, miscalculated the date of conception and, as a result, performed her elective Caesarean section a month early. Fleig also sued Dr. Veena Dhar, the pediatrician assigned to the nursery at St. James Hospital in Newark. She claimed that Dhar didn't examine her son for about four hours after delivery, and by the time she did, he was already in respiratory distress.

Patrick Robinson, a partner at Somerville's Robinson & Glorisi who represented Yerovi, says neither doctor admitted liability, and that the settlement did not allocate an amount to be paid by each doctor. Christopher McCarthy, an associate at the firm also worked on the case.

Dhar's attorney, Hoan Harris, a partner at Morristown's Francis & Berry, was on maternity leave and could not be reached for comment. Her associate, Eileen Kavanagh, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

The settlement was approved on Sept. 18 by Essex County Superior Court Judge Carol Ferentz.

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