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Banks v. Village Enterprises12/5/2000
uestions after and I think the question he asked was proper. . . . I think the way he handled it was proper. . . I'm going overrule your motion for mistrial." We cannot say that this constituted an abuse of the trial court's broad discretion in this area. See Taylor, 950 S.W.2d at 321.
Finally, we note that, although KFC's Point Relied On does state in conclusory fashion that the "insurance questions" resulted in an excessive verdict, the argument portion of the brief does not discuss or explain this claim, and therefore this issue is deemed abandoned. See Coleman, 969 S.W.2d at 273. (arguments raised in the points relied on portion of an appellate brief which are not supported in the argument portion of the brief are deemed abandoned and preserve nothing for appellate review).
For these reasons, KFC's Point II is denied.
V. STATEMENT KFC WOULD PROBABLY PAY MEDICAL BILLS
KFC finally contends that the trial court erred in allowing Plaintiff to ask Deana Chowning, the assistant shift manager at the KFC in Brookfield at the time of the incident, about a statement she made to Mr. Banks concerning whether KFC would probably pay his medical bills stemming from the choking incident.
Specifically, prior to trial, KFC asked the court to prohibit Plaintiffs' counsel from asking Ms. Chowning questions about whether she had told Mr. Banks that KFC would probably pay his medical bills, and whether her supervisor had authorized her to make this statement. The court declined to so rule prior to trial. KFC renewed its objection when the Plaintiffs' counsel asked Ms. Chowning about this statement at trial, arguing it would constitute evidence of work product and settlement negotiations. The court did not rule on KFC's work product or settlement negotiation objections. Instead, it ruled that what Ms. Chowning's supervisor had told her was inadmissible hearsay inasmuch as the supervisor was deceased and so unavailable to testify. The court further held that the supervisor's statement did not come within the exception to the hearsay rule for admissions of a party-opponent, as the statement was made to an employee of KFC, not to an outsider. The court did not directly rule on the objection to counsel's question as to what Ms. Chowning had herself told Mr. Banks about whether KFC would pay his medical bills. Accordingly, once proceedings returned to open court, the Banks' counsel questioned Ms. Chowning as follows:
Q: Now, Mr. and Mrs. Banks returned that evening and they showed the cord to you?
A: Yes, they did.
Q: And you asked them for the cord but they kept it?
A: No. I told them they could keep the cord.
Q: And did you make any other statements to them?
A: I told them that Kentucky Fried Chicken would probably pay for the hospital bill.
Mr. Lewis: Your Honor, again we would make the same objection.
The Court: It's been asked and answered. Overruled.
Counsel for Mr. & Mrs. Banks did not ask any further questions about the hospital bills. However, in an apparent attempt to obtain evidence that the comment about paying Mr. Banks' bills was part of settlement negotiations, during cross-examination counsel for KFC asked Ms. Chowning whether Mr. Banks had been the one to first bring up the idea of KFC paying his hospital bills. Ms. Chowning answered that she was not sure whether he asked about it, but she knew she had brought it up. On redirect examination, she further responded:
Q: Okay. All right. And when you said there was, I think in answer to a leading question by him, there was a discussion about the bill, all you can r
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