By Cherrie Anne E. Villahermosa
Variety News Staff

A jury trial in the lawsuit filed by a man against the Commonwealth Health Center and a physician for negligence and malpractice has begun.
The trial of CHC and Dr. Bernadette Saccomano started on Monday with the jury selection completed in the afternoon.
On Tuesday morning, counsels for the plaintiff and the defense made opening arguments.
George Hasselback is representing the plaintiff Alvin Owens, while the defendants are represented by David Lochabay and Braddock Huezman.
Owens and his wife Marsha were the witnesses on the first day of trial.
Aside from the couple, the plaintiff’s lawyer also presented Dan Harding, a CHC staffer in charge of the radiology department.
At the continuation of the trial yesterday, the plaintiff presented a medical expert, Dr. Paul Bronston, from California.
Bronston testified through video conference in the courtroom of the U.S. District Court for the NMI in the Horiguchi Building in Garapan.
In the afternoon, the trial resumed in Superior Court in Susupe to continue the testimony of Alvin Owens.
Associate Judge David Wiseman is presiding in the case.
The parties are set to return to the federal court this morning for the continuance of the trial.
The plaintiff will again present a medical expert witness through a video conference.
Owens sued the defendants for malpractice and negligence in 2005, saying that CHC doctors failed to tell him that he fractured his ankle when he went there for a check-up after a motorcycle accident in 2004.