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Powell v. Catholic Medical Center3/21/2000
medical training was not required for this determination. Cf. Wood v. Public Serv. Co., 114 N.H. 182, 186-87, 317 A.2d 576, 578 (1974).
Moreover, Dr. Curtis conceded at trial that common sense, and not professional formal protocols, dictated when the frequency of a patient's violent behavior rose to the level of a genuine danger of harm. We conclude that determining whether the patient posed a risk and whether a warning was necessary were within the purview of the average juror.
IV. Medical Reports
Finally, the defendants challenge the admission of medical reports that postdated the June 19 assault as irrelevant, prejudicial, and inadmissible hearsay. One report, dated June 23, 1993, and authored by Dr. Lanes, provided, in part:
This 75-year-old retired Caucasian male is seen for focal psychiatric consultation at the request of Lynn Curtis, M.D. after approximately two weeks on RMU.
DISCUSSION: This would seem to be related to his stroke and most likely to his age. The atrial fibrillation may be a factor. I think that his initial trial of treatment with Droperidol did not provide sufficient control of symptoms and his aggressive behavior is potentially a threat to his own well being or to the well being of those around him. Therefore, Mellaril was tried.
Additionally, a nurse's report dated June 21 stated that during the 15:00 - 23:00 hours shift, the patient was "extremely suspicious of staff combative." A second nurse's report stated, "After digging his fingernails into the nurse's aide's arm - I decided that the wound would be re-dressed later when more people were around to assist control his behavior." The trial court ruled that these medical reports were relevant and not unfairly prejudicial. The trial court noted, however, that the medical reports were irrelevant to the physician's duty to warn because they postdated the assault.
Under New Hampshire Rule of Evidence 401, the trial court has discretion to determine whether evidence has "any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence." N.H. R. Ev. 401; see State v. Dewitt, 143 N.H. 24, 26-27, 719 A.2d 570, 572 (1998). "We will not reverse a trial court's ruling on the admissibility of evidence absent an abuse of discretion. To show an abuse of discretion, the defendant must demonstrate that the court's ruling was clearly untenable or unreasonable to the prejudice of [their] case." Simpson v. Wal-Mart Stores, 144 N.H. ___, ___, 744 A.2d 625, 629 (decided December 30, 1999) (quotation and citation omitted). We note that " here is no requirement . . . that evidence be relevant to all counts before the jury; the law only requires that it be relevant to one." State v. Staymen, 138 N.H. 397, 402, 640 A.2d 771, 774 (1994).
First, the defendants contend that the reports were irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial. They argue that because the reports were compiled after the assault, they have no relevance to what the defendants knew at the time of the assault and whether the defendants had a duty to warn on June 19. Similarly, the defendants contend that the reports were unfairly prejudicial because they provided an inappropriate basis upon which the jury may have relied in determining whether any duty to warn existed before the June 19 assault.
We reject the defendants' arguments because the trial court instructed the jury not to consider the evidence on the question of whether the defendants had a duty to warn. The trial court admitted the reports for the limited purposes of determining whether the June 19 assault occurred
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