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Kodiak Island Borough v. Roe2/7/2003
ned that a contrary ruling would unduly affect the decisions of pregnant women about whether to have and raise their children. We held that the mothers could recover the tort damages for proximately caused injuries but " eyond that point, no compensation for expenses or other damages related to rearing a healthy child may be allowed."
Here, Roe offered the testimony of a rehabilitation nurse and vocational specialist who presented a "life care plan" segregating the ordinary costs of raising M.E. from the unique costs C.E. would incur as a result of C.E.'s disabilities, including the cost of special parenting skills training and counseling for C.E. to deal with the stress of being a parent.
The policy considerations discussed in Poor and M.A. do not apply here. Developmentally disabled women are unlikely to make child- bearing and child-rearing decisions based on the possibility they may recover extraordinary costs should they file suit - especially because they will still be responsible for all ordinary child-rearing expenses. Moreover, recovery of extraordinary damages in this situation is unlikely to cause C.E.'s child to suffer harm or feel unwanted. The sort of costs awarded here can be segregated and distinguished from the ordinary and unrecoverable costs, and there is little fear of the systemic cost-shifting the borough envisions. We accordingly hold that the trial court properly allowed the jury to award damages for C.E.'s extraordinary costs associated with raising M.E.
F. The Trial Court Did Not Abuse Its Discretion by Admitting into Evidence One Page of a Deposition.
The former director of the residential program, Kathleen Addison, testified telephonically at trial after the jury saw her video- taped deposition. When Addison testified at trial that she did not remember making a statement at her deposition, Roe attempted to impeach Addison with the deposition statement. Addison ultimately agreed that she must have made the statement. Roe moved into evidence the page of Addison's deposition containing the disputed statement. Over the borough's objection, the court received the single page of Addison's deposition into evidence and allowed the jury to consider it during its deliberations.
The borough argues on appeal that it was reversible error to admit the statement into evidence. It acknowledges that the trial court had discretion to admit prior inconsistent statements if the proper foundation was laid, but argues that the court should not have admitted this page into evidence because the witness admitted making the prior statement. It argues that it was prejudiced because the deposition page allowed the jury to give undue weight to a mistake of a critical witness.
We review a trial court's evidentiary rulings for abuse of discretion. Admitting the page into evidence did not abuse the court's discretion. And the borough does not show that the page contained irrelevant or otherwise harmful material, or that its contents could have somehow unduly influenced the jury and prejudiced the borough. We discern no error.
IV. CONCLUSION
We therefore AFFIRM the judgment.
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