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Padilla v. Hay5/31/1995
Socorro Padilla won a $19,000 jury verdict in a personal injury suit. She appeals from evidentiary rulings of the trial court excluding certain medical bills on the grounds that their statements constitute hearsay. Because the admission of the bills was contested and she failed to lay a foundation under an exception to the hearsay rule, we affirm.
Facts
Padilla was injured in an automobile accident involving James Hay. Hay admitted that the accident was his fault and that Padilla should be compensated. During the trial, Padilla was asked to identify a number of medical bills. Because of Defendant's hearsay objection, the Judge did not permit her to identify them. In most of these instances, the bills were presented to Padilla for the purpose of refreshing her memory as to the exact dates she visited certain doctors. The Judge eventually ruled that the specific dates of her visits were not relevant.
Later in the trial, Padilla called to the stand Dr. Joshua Goldman, a neurologist, who was one of her treating physicians. He reviewed the medical records from Padilla's other health care providers and testified that the services of those providers were "appropriate." He also testified that Padilla's medical condition was causally related to the automobile accident. Dr. Goldman was asked if he recalled how much the other doctors charged Padilla. In the face of an objection by the defense, Padilla's attorney said that he was laying a foundation for Goldman's opinion about the reasonableness of the fees the other doctors charged. The Judge sustained the objection. After initially refusing to allow a question about Goldman's opinion as to the reasonable costs of the services provided by the doctors, the Judge ruled that Goldman could give his opinion on the necessity of the services of other providers, which services he had reviewed, and the reasonableness of the charges for those services, but that he could not state the amounts of the bills. Padilla's counsel did not ask again what the reasonable value of the services was, but rather asked whether the $275 charge on a particular bill was reasonable. The Judge reiterated that counsel could not admit the amounts of the bill through Dr. Goldman.
Before Padilla rested her case, her counsel made a tender to the court asking permission for Padilla to identify the bills. He said he needed her identification of the bills so that Goldman could testify as to the reasonableness of their amounts. Hay argued that the bills are hearsay and could only be introduced under the business-records exception, SCRA 1986, 11-803(F) (Repl. 1994), which requires the bills to have been made in the regular course of business, at or around the time the services were rendered, and be introduced by a witness who is knowledgeable as to the contents of the bills. Padilla countered that by identifying the bills she could authenticate them as having been received by her and that Goldman, who had already testified to the appropriateness (necessity) of the services, could then testify that the amounts of the bills were reasonable. Her attorney conceded that the bills are hearsay, but he believed he could avoid the hearsay problem, because he would not be offering the bills through Padilla for their contents. He took the position that Padilla would merely testify that she received the bills in the mail, and the bills would be admissible through Goldman. The Judge ruled that the identification itself would not be a problem, but the later use of the bills so that Goldman could testify about the amounts of the bills would be hearsay. Therefore, the Judge refused to allow the identification. Padilla never offered to testify directly as to the am
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