By Douglass Dowty | ddowty@syracuse.com
on July 03, 2014 at 3:35 PM, updated July 03, 2014 at 3:44 PM
Syracuse, NY -- A Syracuse dentistry is guilty of malpractice and negligence in the care of four young patients, but will not have to pay the families for injuries, a state Supreme Court jury ruled.
That means that while Small Smiles mistreated patients at its South Geddes Street clinic, the injuries did not reach the threshold for compensation, said Richard Frankel, a Texas attorney who represented the patients' families.
The split verdict sets the tone for a huge backlog of lawsuits against Small Smiles. There are 30 other children statewide -- five more in Syracuse.
Complaints against Small Smiles date from 2005 to 2009. The Syracuse office closed in 2012 after the owner filed for bankruptcy.
Before the jury verdict, state Supreme Court Justice Deborah Karalunas ruled that Small Smiles violated state law as a dentistry by being owned by a corporation and not a dentist, Frankel said. …
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