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Wells v. Halyard6/12/2000
o not constitute reversible error. Id. at 498, 514 S.E.2d at 575. An alleged error is harmless if the appellate court determines beyond a reasonable doubt that the alleged error did not contribute to the verdict. State v. Kerr, 330 S.C. 132, 498 S.E.2d 212 (Ct. App. 1998); see Waldrup v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 274 S.C. 344, 263 S.E.2d 652 (1980) (the appellate court must view the jury charge as a whole before assigning prejudicial error to a discrete portion of the charge).
I.
Wells first argues the trial court erred in overemphasizing the various legal immunities of health care providers, leading the jury to reach a verdict for respondents. We disagree.
The mere repetition of a correct statement of the law does not constitute per se reversible error. Young v. Warr, 252 S.C. 179, 201, 165 S.E.2d 797, 808 (1969) ("a judgment will not be reversed because of repetition in a charge to the jury unless such [repetition] is prejudicial and it reasonably appears that the jury was mislead thereby"); Keys v. Winnsboro Granite Co., 72 S.C. 97, 102, 51 S.E. 549, 551 (1905) (Where there is no doubt that the charge as a whole correctly states the law, the court's "failure to analyze and connect the numerous requests of the opposing counsel on the same subject, and indicate in logical sequence how they modify each other, does not afford ground for reversal."); see, e.g., Lewis v. Emory Univ., 509 S.E.2d 635 (Ga. Ct. App. 1998) (the appellate court found charge, repeated on five separate occasions, that jury could not guess or speculate to reach a conclusion in the medical malpractice case, was not reversible error in the context of the entire charge). But see, e.g., Hunnicutt v. Griffin, 332 S.E.2d 525 (N.C. Ct. App. 1985) (the appellate court found charge was erroneously repeated where the trial court instructed the jury six times that negligence cannot be presumed from the mere fact of injury ).
In this case, the trial court's repetitions were generally correct statements of the current state law. See McCourt, 318 S.C. at 308, 457 S.E.2d at 607 (the appellate court found no error where "the instructions as a whole clearly intimate that a mere mistake in diagnosis or error in judgment alone is insufficient to support a finding of malpractice"); Delk v. Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co., 180 S.C. 436, 443, 186 S.E. 383, 386 (1936) ("A plaintiff must prove negligence affirmatively."); Wall v. Suits, 318 S.C. 377, 382-83, 458 S.E.2d 43, 46 (Ct. App. 1995) (where the trial court instructed the jury that " hen a physician undertakes to treat a patient, the law does not require absolute accuracy either in his practice or his judgment nor does the law hold a physician to the standard of infallibility," the appellate court found no error and concluded "the charge in its entirety indicates a mistaken diagnosis alone is insufficient to support a finding of malpractice"). While the trial court may have repeated certain charges, the trial court never misstated the law. Furthermore, any repetition was harmless because the jury charge as a whole was not misleading. We, therefore, conclude Wells was not prejudiced such that the jury's verdict should be reversed.
II.
Wells also argues the trial court erred in charging the jury, "There is absolutely no restriction on lawsuits. Anybody can sue anyone, at any time, for anything," thereby implying Wells's suit was frivolous. We find no merit to this argument.
While we agree that this discussion potentially could mislead the jury if taken out of context, the trial court was merely introducing the concept of burden of proof and the elements of negligence Wells was required to prove. Moreover, immediately prior
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