A jury yesterday awarded $3 million to a Shadyside man whose attorney said the man's doctor characterized him as an alcoholic rather than treat him for the nonalcohol related liver disease that left the man in need of a transplant.

Charles Richard, a veteran clerk in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, never had a drinking problem, said his lawyer, Alan Perer.

Richard's primary care physician, Dr. James Sahovey, in 1997 examined results of blood tests done on Richard and discovered abnormal liver enzymes. Over the following two years, Perer said, Sahovey did not pursue the diagnosis with an open mind, treating the case instead as though Richard were alcoholic.

Perer said Richard, 39, was not told that he had liver disease.

Richard was 34 when, at his desk at work, he began spitting up blood. He then was diagnosed as suffering from cirrhosis, an end-stage liver disease that will lead to his death unless he has a liver transplant.

The jury of three men and nine women deliberated for about two hours at the end of the four-day trial before finding in Richard's favor, Perer said.