4:45 pm
A former patient of pathologist Michael Bottrill - the doctor at the centre of the Gisborne Cancer Inquiry - has today been told she will not get the chance to sue him for exemplary damages.
The woman, known only as patient A, alleged Dr Bottrill negligently misread four of her cervical smear slides between 1990-1994.
She developed invasive cancer and had to have a radical hysterectomy and radiation treatment.
A majority of the five-member Court of Appeal in Wellington today turned down the woman's application for a new trial saying exemplary damages could only been awarded when the allegedly negligent person knew the risk of what they were doing and carried on.
Patient A's first attempt to bring the case to trial was struck down by the High Court.
A judge granted a new trial based on new evidence from the re-examination of Dr Bottrill's slides by a Sydney Laboratory.
Four of the five judges overturned that judgement saying a new trial could not be justified on the Sydney evidence.
The judges said there was nothing in the new evidence that indicated Dr Bottrill was aware of the mistakes he was making.
Bottrill patient denied chance to sue
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