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Baker v. Hutson8/20/2002
uld be subject to exacting scrutiny on review due to the nature of damages evidence. See Frisch Contracting Service Corp., 93 Ill. App. 3d at 807, 417 N.E.2d at 1076. The fact that evidence regarding damages in personal injury cases lacks precision is hardly a novel notion. It is difficult to quantify pain and suffering, disfigurement, and disability. An assessment of medical expenses might also lack precision because reasonable minds can differ in regard to whether a plaintiff's complaints and condition were caused by the defendant's negligence, whether the treatment provided was necessary, and whether the charges for that treatment were reasonable. Jurors are instructed that they can consider, among other things, the demeanor, bias, and interest of a witness when they assess his or her credibility and the weight to be given the testimony. See Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, Civil, No. 2.01 (2000). Jurors are also instructed to utilize their knowledge gained from their ordinary experiences in life to decide what facts have been proven. See Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, Civil, No. 1.01 (2000 ed.). Depending upon their determinations about credibility and their ordinary experiences in life, jurors must decide whether the plaintiff's complaints are exaggerated or genuine, whether certain treatment was unnecessary or justified, or whether various charges were unreasonable or reasonable. See Giddings v. Wyman, 32 Ill. App. 2d 220, 223-24, 177 N.E.2d 641, 643 (1961). Credibility issues and circumstances surrounding the incident or the treatment may give rise to varying inferences. Though we are not prepared to say that a directed verdict on damages in a personal injury case could never be sustained, the number of occasions where that action would be justified is minute, and the case at bar is not one of them.
After reviewing the record, we have determined that the trial court erred in directing a verdict on the issues of causation and damages. Whether certain medical services were necessary and whether plaintiff's complaints were causally related to the accident were disputed issues. The record reveals that differing inferences could have been drawn from the testimony of the witnesses. A few examples, with reasonable inferences considered in a light favorable to defendant, will adequately illustrate the point. The fact that plaintiff's attorney referred plaintiff to Dr. Woodard and to Dr. Birnbaum is undisputed. Likewise, the evidence established that plaintiff did not follow the emergency room physician's recommendation to be reevaluated at the SIU clinic but that she did follow her lawyer's recommendation to treat with Dr. Woodard and, later, with Dr. Birnbaum. There was evidence that plaintiff completed a new-patient questionnaire in which she wrote that the purpose of her visit to Dr. Woodard was "to find any injuries due to the automobile accident". There was evidence that Dr. Woodard released plaintiff without restriction and that when plaintiff was released, her condition was 95% improved. There was evidence that plaintiff did not receive any treatment for her symptoms for almost a year after Dr. Woodard released her and that Dr. Birnbaum's initial evaluation occurred more than five years after the accident. There was evidence that Dr. Woodard issued a billing statement for chiropractic services and a separate statement for rehabilitative services, even though the rehabilitative therapy was provided on the same date, during the same visit, and at the same office location as the manipulation. There was no evidence that plaintiff's medical bills were paid. Based upon the evidence and reasonable inferences, a jury could have concluded that plaintiff's treating doctors were financially interested in the outc
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