A Glendale jury cleared two doctors in the wrongful-death lawsuit. As reported by the LAT, jurors found that the doctors did everything they could to save the actor’s life. Actually, the motivation about filing suit always seemed a little iffy - the family already has received more than $14 million in settlements. Ritter's wife, actress Amy Yasbeck, told The Times that the family was seeking damages in part because they wanted a public accounting of what had happened. She also wanted a public apology.

At dispute was whether doctors at the hospital should have identified his condition -- an aortic dissection, which is a tear in the largest blood vessel in the body -- when he sought treatment for chest pain that had begun earlier that day while he was on the set of his hit show "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter." Doctors treated him for a heart attack, not discovering his pre-existing condition until shortly before he died. Lawyers for the defendants, radiologist Matthew Lotysch and cardiologist Joseph Lee, argued successfully that Ritter was doomed by his own biology.