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Miller v. Clout10/30/2002
AMENDED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART, AND RENDERED.
In this personal injury case involving a rear-end vehicular collision where liability for causing the accident was stipulated, the plaintiff, Iris Miller, who was sixty-three years old at the time of trial, appeals the judgment of the trial court pursuant to a jury verdict. Ms. Miller contends the jury abused its discretion by failing to award the full amount of her past medical expenses of $17,689.37 as stipulated by the parties and instead awarding only $865.95. Ms. Miller further contends that the trial court abused its discretion in failing to award any amount for future medical expenses and in awarding $2,500.00 general damages.
For the following reasons, we find that the jury abused its discretion in its award of $865.95 for Ms. Miller's past medical expenses and amend to increase her award to $17,689.37, the amount stipulated by the parties. We affirm the jury's decision not to award Ms. Miller any amount for future medical expenses and amend its award of general damages to increase this amount from $2,500.00 to $75,000.00.
I.
ISSUES
The issues in this case involve damages. We must decide whether the jury erred in failing to award to Ms. Miller the full amount of her past medical bill and in refusing to award any amount for her future medical expenses. Ms. Miller also claims that the amount awarded to her by the jury for general damages, $2,500.00, is abusively low.
II.
FACTS
There is no dispute that at approximately noon on Saturday, August 15, 1998, Ms. Miller and Eric Clout were involved in a motor vehicle accident. As Ms. Miller waited to turn left in the left turning lane at the intersection of Pinhook and Verot School Road in Lafayette, Louisiana, Clout, while in the course and scope of his employment with Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations (Baker Hughes), struck Ms. Miller from behind. The parties stipulated at trial that Baker Hughes, through its employee, Clout, was at fault in causing the accident.
Ms. Miller was taken from the scene of the accident by ambulance to Lafayette General Medical Center where she was treated and released. The night of the accident, Miller testified that she woke up in "excruciating pain." She called the emergency room at Lafayette General and was told to call her regular doctor in the morning. During the five days after the accident, Ms. Miller testified that she suffered from terrible pain in her head, neck, shoulders and arms. Ms. Miller described the pain as occurring mostly on her left side. She also stated that the pain was so intense that she was barely able to move from her bed, that she was unable to eat very much or take baths. To alleviate the pain Ms. Miller took over-the-counter pain medication she had in her home.
One month after the accident on September 15, 1998, Ms. Miller went to Dr. Lyons, an internist and her regular physician, because of her continued pain. Ms. Miller did not explain the reason for her delay in seeing Dr. Lyons. On October 6 and 8, 1998, Ms. Miller went to the office of Dr. Narinder Gupta, an anesthesiologist and a doctor she was seeing for pain prior to the August 15, 1998 accident. She did not see the doctor on those days and did not relate to his staff that she had been in a car accident two months earlier. Ms. Miller saw Dr. Gupta on October 15, 1998. On that date she told Dr. Gupta about her accident. Dr. Gupta testified that Ms. Miller presented with complaints of left neck and shoulder pain, headache, and tingling in her left arm as well as pain in her lower back.
Dr. Gupta's examination revealed that Ms. Miller had unequal pelvic
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