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Westphal v. Wal-Mart Stores12/18/1998
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of Sacramento County, Richard K. Park, Judge. Affirmed.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (defendant) appeals from the judgment in favor of Betty Westphal (plaintiff) in this personal injury action arising out of a slip and fall accident that occurred on defendant's property. Defendant contends the judgment must be reversed because the amount of damages awarded is excessive. Plaintiff retorts that the appeal is frivolous and asks for sanctions.
We shall affirm the judgment and grant plaintiff's request for sanctions. As we will explain, this appeal is frivolous because it indisputably has no merit.
The case was tried fairly in the superior court. Presented with evidence that defendant's negligence caused plaintiff to suffer severe pain in her back and foot (requiring her to use crutches and other devices for several months) and develop a recognized, chronic pain syndrome of headaches and constant discomfort of varying intensity in her neck, back, leg and foot (which has altered her lifestyle), the jury found that plaintiff had suffered special damages of $8,000 and general damages of $150,000. Finding the award generous but not outrageous, the trial court denied defendant's motion for a new trial on the ground of excessive damages.
Summarizing the evidence in the light most favorable to its position in the trial court, defendant asks us to be an "independent voice of conscience" and find the general damages award is excessive. Defendant fails to appreciate that, as a reviewing court, we view the evidence through a different lens than does the trier of fact. The judgment comes to us cloaked with the presumption that it is correct. In assessing a claim that the jury's award of damages is excessive, we do not reassess the credibility of witnesses or reweigh the evidence. To the contrary, we consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the judgment, accepting every reasonable inference and resolving all conflicts in its favor. We may interfere with an award of damages only when it is so large that it shocks the conscience and suggests passion, prejudice or corruption on the part of the jury.
Application of these well-established rules of appellate review to the evidence in this case leads to but one Conclusion: defendant's appeal is utterly without merit, and plaintiff wrongly has been compelled to defend against it. Accordingly, we shall direct defendant to pay sanctions to plaintiff and to this court to compensate each for the expense of addressing plaintiff's frivolous appeal.
FACTS
In December 1994, while working as a product demonstrator in premises owned by defendant, the 55-year-old plaintiff slipped and fell on a wet concrete floor. According to a witness, it was a "fast slip-fall" and plaintiff landed with a "pretty hard thump" on her back.
Plaintiff immediately felt pain in her whole left side, tailbone and left foot, and she could barely walk. After she rested and iced her leg, plaintiff was helped to her car. The drive home was difficult. Upon arriving, she crawled into the house and went to bed.
The next morning, plaintiff went to the hospital for X-rays and examination. She was diagnosed with lumbar, coccyx and ankle sprains, outfitted with a walking cast and crutches, and given a prescription for Motrin. For several months following the accident, she had to use assistive devices, such as crutches, a chair with rollers, and a walker, to help her ambulate due to the pain in her low back and left foot.
Between December 1994 and July 1995, Donald Davis, D.C., treated plaintiff for headaches, lo
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