 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Arrabal v. Crew-Taylor12/3/2004
ere the appellants prejudiced by the failure to grant judgment as to the lack-of-informed-consent claim, in light of the fact that the jury found, in answering Questions 1 and 2 on the verdict sheet, that Dr. Arrabal's breach of the standard of care in his treatment of Che and his mother was the proximate cause of an injury to both Che and his mother?
Appellants argue:
Evidence of appellees' claims for negligence and lack of informed consent were inextricably intertwined because both were grounded in Dr. Arrabal's alleged failure to deliver. As such, a new trial is required as to both liability and damages. Further, the trial court's failure to delineate on the special verdict damages for informed consent requires reversal and a new trial on damages because the award to Mrs. Crew[-]Taylor may have improperly included damages for informed consent.
Appellants also make a closely related argument to the one just quoted, i.e., that a new trial is required because "the evidence and testimony adduced at trial in support of the informed consent claim [were] inextricably bound up with the claim for negligence . . . ."
In their reply brief, appellants phrase their contention as follows:
If, as ppellants contend, the issue of informed consent was improperly submitted to the jury, then the entire verdict must fall because it cannot be ascertained to what extent the jury's determination as to negligence was influenced by its conclusions with respect to informed consent.
We disagree with the contention that the issues presented to the jury on the verdict sheet as Questions 1 and 2 (what appellants call the "negligence" claim) were "inextricably intertwined" with Questions 3 and 4 (the lack of informed consent questions) "because both were grounded in Dr. Arrabal's failure to deliver." The informed consent claim was not grounded on a failure to timely deliver the triplets but rather on the theory that Dr. Arrabal had a duty to explain to Mrs. Crew-Taylor on October 18 the pros and cons of not immediately delivering the babies.
The second argument (that a new trial is required because the testimony as to the informed-consent theory "was inextricably bound up" with the claim for "negligence") likewise is not persuasive. Our review of the record discloses that the evidence presented concerning Questions 1 and 2 (called the "negligence claim" by appellants) was not inextricably bound up with testimony as to whether Dr. Arrabal had breached his duty to provide informed consent. The expert witnesses testified as to these issues separately.
The argument in appellants' reply brief is based on the implied premise that the jury may have answered Questions 1 and 2 in the affirmative because the jurors believed that Dr. Arrabal was not negligent in delaying delivery for one day but breached his duty to provide informed consent to his patient. The implied premise is illegitimate in light of the answers given to the first four questions on the verdict sheet when read in conjunction with the informed consent instruction given to the jury, viz:
Before providing a specific type or course of medical treatment in a situation where you have a mentally competent adult patient in non-emergent circumstances, a physician has a duty to obtain the consent of the patient after disclosing to the patient: one, the nature of the condition to be treated; two, the nature of the treatment being proposed; three, the probability of success of that treatment; four, the alternatives, if any, to the proposed treatment; and five, every material risk of negative consequences of the treatment being proposed.
A material risk is a risk th
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Maryland Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|