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Wiker v. Pieprzyca-Berkes6/20/2000
The plaintiff brought this tort action seeking compensation for injuries that she allegedly suffered as a result of an automobile collision. The plaintiff rejected an arbitration award and went to trial. At trial, the court denied the plaintiff's motion for a directed verdict on the issue of liability. The jury ruled in favor of the defendant. The plaintiff filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, or in the alternative a new trial. The trial court denied the motion.
The plaintiff now appeals, arguing that: (1) the evidence so overwhelmingly favored her case that it was error for the trial court not to grant her judgment notwithstanding the verdict; (2) alternatively, the trial court should have ordered a new trial because the jury's verdict was against the manifest weight of the evidence; (3) evidence of injuries sustained by the plaintiff in a prior auto accident should not have been admitted without a showing by the defendant that those injuries could be the cause of her current maladies; (4) the trial court erred in barring admission of certain medical bills that the plaintiff introduced late; (5) she is entitled to a new trial because the defendant did not disclose in discovery a surveillance video; (6) the trial court erred in sustaining two objections to plaintiff's closing argument; and (7) the trial court erred in requiring the jurors to deliberate further when they sent the judge a note indicating that they were deadlocked.
BACKGROUND
On the afternoon of March 27, 1991, Judith Wiker, the plaintiff, was driving her sport utility vehicle (SUV) on Lakeshore Drive in Chicago . When she was stopped in traffic, the car of Judith Pieprzyca-Berkes, the defendant, collided with the rear of the plaintiff's SUV. The accident caused no significant damage to the SUV. The grill of the defendant's car popped out and one headlight was broken. The plaintiff testified at trial that in the collision her head was thrown back and hit the headrest.
Since the accident the plaintiff has seen a number of health care providers. Immediately after the accident, she claims, she began to have head, neck and back problems. The next day she saw a chiropractor, Dr. William Schenck, complaining of low back pain, neck pain, a headache, disorientation, a choking sensation and difficulty swallowing. Although she said that these problems started the previous day, she also indicated that she had had episodes of neck and hip pain after a previous accident three years before. Dr. Schenck noted that the plaintiff's thyroid gland was somewhat swollen.
She continued with Dr. Schenck for treatment, seeing him about 20 times before he moved to Vermont. He recommended a nutritional supplement for the thyroid condition and other types of therapy for the back and neck pain. After Dr. Schenck left, his partnerm, Dr. Luke Maes, took over treatment of the plaintiff. The plaintiff became dissatisfied with Dr. Maes' treatment and went to another chiropractor, Dr. Frank Fiala, who started her on a course of physical therapy. Dr. Fiala referred her to an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Michael Zindrick. Dr. Zindrick saw the plaintiff once. His testing revealed only minor cervical and lumbar sprain, as well as some degenerative changes in the back which he thought predated the auto accident.
Dr. Fiala told the plaintiff that he had given her all the treatment that he could for her pain. In early 1993, the plaintiff went to see Dr. Grant Seivertsen, an endocrinologist, about her thyroid condition. Dr. Seivertsen diagnosed her as having Hashimoto's hypothyroidism, an autoimmune disorder, but he did not think it had anything to do with the auto accident.
Dr. Maria Ho
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