SAN DIEGO —
A San Diego jury on Wednesday awarded more than $39.5 million to an oncologist who accused UC San Diego of retaliation after a battle that started over where to steer a $10 million donation for cancer research.
The University of California Regents, which oversees the UC system, sued Dr. Kevin Murphy, alleging fraud and breach of duty. The doctor, in turn, sued the UC Regents alleging retaliation and wrongful termination. A San Diego Superior Court jury juggled both civil lawsuits at once.
The conflict traces back to a $10 million donation from one of Murphy’s patients, and a dispute over how the donor had intended the money to be spent. The university planned to use it as a general gift for its Moores Cancer Center. Murphy said the donor had intended to fund Murphy’s research into brain stimulation treatment. He complained the school was attempting to divert the funds.
Eventually, the school steered the money to Murphy’s research. But he said school officials thwarted his attempts to set up clinical trials and ignored his official complaints about it. The school said Murphy violated policies, wrongly used donated funds to set up a research clinic off campus and enriched himself and his companies.
The competing lawsuits from Murphy, 55, and the University of California Regents were combined into one trial. The trial ran roughly eight weeks. The jury...
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