 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Gamata v. Allstate Insurance Co.4/28/1999
that "we need to see how [Plaintiff] . . . reacted to the [post-denial] treatment" to "know whether or not the treatment was curative or palliative."[ ]
The court ruled in favor of Allstate, and ordered that Dr. Portner not "give testimony subsequent to the October 13, 1997 denial."
C.
Plaintiff filed a motion for reconsideration of the in limine order and at the reconsideration hearing, argued that "if [Plaintiff] cannot present any evidence subsequent to the denial, then he will never be able to challenge a denial by Allstate for any further benefits."
Allstate, on the other hand, urged that post-denial evidence was not relevant, and "the argument that [Plaintiff] would never be able to challenge a denial of future benefits is just flat wrong." According to Allstate, " f an insure denies benefits at a time which is arguably too early, there would be and should be credible evidence that the denial was improper at the time it was issued."
The court acknowledged that it "unders[tood] . . . [Plaintiff] incurred the bills [for the MRI and the nerve root injection] and that [Plaintiff is] saying Allstate should have paid for the bills because they were reasonable, appropriate or necessary."
The court again ruled in Allstate's favor, finding that Plaintiff's breach of contract claim related only to "Allstate's decision at a particular point in time[,]" i.e., the time of the denial.
During trial, Plaintiff did not make an offer of proof as to the substance of the excluded evidence.
D.
At trial, Dr. Portner testified that when he first examined Plaintiff on April 24, 1997, Plaintiff was complaining of "left-sided neck pain" and headaches. Dr. Portner opined that the subject accident caused Plaintiff's symptoms:
Q [Counsel for Plaintiff] Did [Plaintiff] tell you anything significant, any prior injuries?
A [Dr. Portner] He did not have any.
Q What did your history reveal about the cause of his symptoms?
A That he was involved in a motor vehicle accident on March 28th .
Q So, at that time [(the time of the examination)], the history and examination reflect[,] in your opinion[,] to a reasonable degree of medical certainty[,] that the automobile accident was the cause of [Plaintiff's] present complaints?
A Yes, based on the history that he gave me that he didn't have neck pain before the accident, and then he had them shortly afterwards, it was pretty obvious to me that there was a causal relationship.
(Emphasis added.) During direct examination, Dr. Portner stated that "one never knows if its treatment that made somebody better or the passage of time and his own healing properties of his body." However, Dr. Portner also asserted that the treatment he requested and provided prior to Allstate's denial was appropriate, reasonable, and necessary.
Plaintiff testified that on the day of the accident he began to feel pain in his neck, and that the headaches began one to two days after the accident. He reported that Dr. Portner's pre-denial treatment eased the pain for "a week or so, seven or eight days" at a time. Before that, the pain level, on a scale of one through ten, was "high, to eight or nine[,]" and after a few weeks of treatment the pain level dropped to "five or six[.]" According to Plaintiff, this helped him "a lot."
Plaintiff also related that he underwent the MRI. As an apparent result of the court's in limine order, Plaintiff did not testify as to the MRI results, the nerve root injection, or the effect of such treatment.
During cross-examination
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Hawaii Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|