Judge rules family of late actor Bill Paxton can sue over alleged cause of death “cover-up”

Bill Paxton‘s untimely death in 2017 was at the center of a Los Angeles’ judge’s decision on Wednesday.

Deadline reports Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steven J. Kleifield is allowing the actor’s widow, Louise Paxton, and the couple’s children, James and Lydia Paxton, to sue Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for punitive damages in connection with actor’s death.

The Twister and True Lies star’s cause of death was officially listed as a stroke, which he suffered 11 days after surgery to replace a heart valve and repair aorta damage. He was 61.

However, according to the family’s lawsuit, reports Deadline, surgeon Dr. Ali Khoynezhad — who no longer works for Cedars — “was known prior to the Paxton death to practice what has been testified to by the hospital staff as ‘cowboy medicine’…In Khoynezhad’s quest to generate more surgeries and higher numbers, he continued to push the envelope and pushed to do surgeries on cases that were marginal at best.”

After the actor’s death, the family’s suit alleges, “The heart surgery recommended to Bill Paxton was not indicated” in his cause of death, and continues, “Mr. Paxton did not meet even Khoynezhad’s own criteria for such a surgery.”

What’s more, the family claims Cedars-Sinai and Dr. Khoynezhad, “intentionally interfered with and thwarted their request for an autopsy to cover up the cause of Paxton’s death,” Deadline reports.

Further, Paxton’s relatives say that had they known that their requests for an autopsy would be denied, they would have made “alternative arrangements” to have one done before he was cremated.

A trial date for the punitive damages was also rescheduled from March to September 19.