PORTLAND – The Maine Supreme Judicial Court next week will hear the appeal of a Bangor man serving nine years in prison for manslaughter.

Bruce Mann, 46, was convicted in September 2002 by a Penobscot County jury of causing the death of Jack Sears, 40, of Bangor.

Mann admitted that he hit or kicked Sears at least 11 times in two separate incidents during a party at a Bangor apartment in early November 2001.

Mann’s attorney, Stephen Smith of Bangor, is expected to argue on Tuesday there was insufficient evidence to support a guilty verdict and that Superior Court Justice Andrew Mead should have used the defense’s proposed jury instruction on self-defense.

In sentencing Mann, Mead called the altercation a “one-sided beating.”

“Mr. Mann didn’t intend to cause the death of Jack Sears, but this was a bullying, brutal and unjustifiable assault,” the judge said.

Smith has cited a Vermont case that required a jury in that state to determine which of the blows was fatal, according to information on the court’s Web site.

The court also will consider next week the appeal of a Winter Harbor man who lost a malpractice suit against a Machias doctor in April. A Hancock County jury decided by a 6-2 verdict that Dr. Catherine Hawthorne was not negligent in her treatment of resident James E. Smith for a broken leg in 1997.

Smith’s attorney, A.J. Grief of Bangor, is expected to argue on Wednesday that the provision that allows only a portion of the medical screening panel’s finding to be presented is unconstitutional.

Before a malpractice suit can be filed in Maine, a panel made up of a lawyer, a health care provider and a person with judicial experience must review such claims to determine if there was negligence.

When the verdict was announced, Grief said that though the pre-litigation panel found Hawthorne had been negligent in her care of Smith, the jury was told only that the same panel had found that Hawthorne’s care resulted in no harm to Smith.

In another case, the justices will hear on Tuesday the state’s appeal of a Kennebec County jury’s verdict last year that awarded more than $573,000 to Profit Recovery Group, USA, Inc. of Atlanta.

The firm was hired several years ago by the state controller to recover overpayments by the state. The company located $2.1 million in overpayments that included the disputed payment to a Medicaid provider, according to Assistant Attorney General Christopher Taub.

In its appeal, the state claims that the state controller did not have the authority to sign the contract and that Profit Recovery should not have been awarded the money because an audit of Medicaid payments was not within the scope of the contract.

Profit Recovery Group has cross-appealed a denial of prejudgment and post-judgment interest due to the state’s sovereign immunity, arguing that the state waived its sovereign immunity by entering into the contract, according to information on the court’s Web site.