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Kravitz v. Beech Hill Hospital9/27/2002
Cheshire
Argued: February 7, 2002
The plaintiffs, Judith Kravitz and her daughter, Jane Doe, appeal a ruling of the Superior Court (Mangones, J.) denying their motion for additur, or in the alternative, for a new trial on damages. The plaintiffs maintain that the trial court erred by allowing defendant Beech Hill Hospital, L.L.C. (Beech Hill) to impeach the jury's verdict by supplementing the record with evidence obtained during its post-trial conversations with the jurors and that the trial court was improperly influenced by this inadmissible evidence. The plaintiffs also argue that the trial court erred by admitting evidence of Doe's prior consensual sexual activity and by refusing to strike testimony that referred to the race of individuals with whom Doe allegedly had prior consensual sex. Beech Hill cross-appeals, arguing that the court erred in denying its motion to set aside the jury verdict, or in the alternative, for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. Beech Hill also argues that the court erred in permitting Kravitz to amend her writ after the verdict was reached by the jury. We affirm in part and reverse in part.
The plaintiffs sued Beech Hill and defendant Ernest Reels to recover damages resulting from the alleged sexual assault and rape by Reels of Doe, a fourteen-year-old girl, while she was a patient at Beech Hill. Beech Hill is a health care facility specializing in the residential care and treatment of adult and adolescent patients suffering from drug and alcohol addiction. The plaintiffs alleged that Beech Hill failed to provide proper care and treatment of Doe while she was under its care and failed to prevent Reels, an eighteen-year-old patient known by Beech Hill to be a convicted sexual offender, from having access to Doe. The plaintiffs alleged that as a result of Beech Hill's failures, Doe was sexually assaulted and raped by Reels. The plaintiffs did not claim a violation of the felonious sexual assault statute. See RSA 632-A:3, II (2001) (victim between age of 13 and 16). During the trial, Doe testified that she was forcibly raped. Thus, the central question at trial was whether the sexual activity involved was consensual, i.e., whether Doe voluntarily participated in the sexual conduct.
After a ten-day trial, the jury returned the completed verdict form finding Beech Hill liable. Because liability had already been established against Reels by default, the verdict form contained a pre-written "yes" answer concerning Reels' liability to the plaintiffs. The jury then apportioned fault between Beech Hill and Reels, finding Beech Hill one hundred percent at fault. The jury returned a verdict of $13,672.00 for Kravitz, which was apparently based on a bill submitted by Kravitz for reimbursement for Doe's hospitalization at Beech Hill. The jury found that Doe was not entitled to any damages. Because the jury found Beech Hill negligent, the trial court recommitted the question of Doe's damages (Question #6) to the jury. The jury then asked the following question:
We answered yes to question 1 and 2 [finding that Beech Hill breached its duty to the plaintiffs thereby causing damages to the plaintiffs] because we felt that there were damages in the way of medical expenses incurred by Judith Kravitts ut not necessarily damages to Jane Doe as caused by Beech Hill. That is the reason for filling in our form in this manner. The instructions stated that we could award Medical expenses to Ms. Kravitts . It did not state that a limitation was to be placed on Question #6. Please advise.
The court responded to the jury by explaining:
Question #6 shows a response of '0' in damages as to Jane Doe. In light of your
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