GALVESTON - Asserting a League City woman submitted medical claims which are "non-related" to the allegations against it, Saltgrass Inc. filed a motion for partial no-evidence summary judgment.
Deborah Marsh is suing the eatery in Galveston County 56th District Court after she allegedly swallowed a foreign object on Oct. 3, 2009. She claims she unknowingly consumed a "sharp-pointed" wooden skewer that was embedded in a steak salad she ordered.
Her original petition, entered April 6, 2011, says that "the skewer punctuated and/or became embedded in her tissue and has caused a permanent impairment to the plaintiff's voice and vocal cords."
Saltgrass says the plaintiff, however, has filed medical billing affidavits from Coastal Eye Associates, Hopping Eye Associates, St. John's Hospital and Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center.
"These medical charges relate to care rendered for eye, diabetes and cardiac complaints which are not and cannot be shown to be related to the 'throat/voice' injury," the 20-page motion, filed March 12, says.
The defendant adds that Marsh "limited her complaints, relating to the incident, to her voice complaint" in her sworn testimony taken a couple of months ago.
Saltgrass states Marsh "has not and cannot, by any admissible evidence, demonstrate that there is any evidence in support of these claimed medical billings."
The case is set for trial on April 23.
Lewis & Williams LLP is representing Saltgrass.
Case No. 11-cv-581