CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Kanawha County judge on Monday approved the final details of a settlement involving a former Charleston doctor accused of sexually abusing patients.
Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey gave the settlement involving Steven Matulis a final approval with no objections made in the proceedings.
Bailey approved a $23 million settlement in May 2021 related to Matulis, a former gastroenterologist previously convicted of first-degree sexual abuse after abusing a patient who was under anesthesia. The class-action lawsuit involves nearly 2,500 women that Matulis treated at Charleston Area Medical Center’s endoscopy suite between 2010 and 2016.
Both sides agreed on a settlement amount after several days of mediation.
Charleston Area Medical Center will pay a gross amount of $5 million to cover attorneys’ fees, expenses and service awards. The health care facility, as a result, will be clear of all remaining claims with prejudice.
Each class member will receive a check of $1,173.63. The two class representatives — identified as A.H. and A.F. — will each receive $10,000 service awards; each class representative was initially set to receive $2,500.
David Carriger, an attorney for the plaintiffs, noted a fee petition of 39% of the settlement amount, similar to the gross settlement amount of $5 million.
“One, we think it’s consistent to what these court has done in this case already. Two, we think it’s justified,” he said. “This particular section of the case as, your honor, will recall was somewhat of a novel claim of these patients bringing a discrimination claim against the hospital under the Human Rights Act. There really wasn’t a lot of guidance or case law on that for the court or for the parties to go by.”
Attorney Ben Salango noted the matter started as a single case before growing into five class settlements and multiple individual cases.
Attorneys also submitted a $114,697.56 reimbursement request related to their work.