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BLOME v. TRUSKA9/5/1997
This case is an interlocutory appeal from a contribution action involving three doctors named as defendants in a previous medical malpractice litigation: Robert A. Blome, M.D.; John H. Truksa, M.D.; and Neil K. Farris, D.O. Marchand v. Mercy Med. Ctr., Civ. 89-1216 (D.Idaho, Dec. 9, 1991) (Marchand).
I.
BACKGROUND AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS.
A. Facts Related to the Previous Litigation.
Ken Marchand (Marchand) was injured on March 13, 1987, while working at the Amalgamated Sugar Company in Nampa, Idaho. Responding paramedics immobilized Marchand's head and neck. He was admitted to the emergency room of Mercy Medical Center on March 13, 1987, and was treated by Neil K. Farris, D.O. (Farris). Robert A. Blome, M.D. (Blome), a general surgeon, and Douglas Rogers, M.D. (Rogers), an anesthesiologist, consulted with Farris. As part of Marchand's emergency room treatment, Farris and the other doctors agreed to order a full set of cervical spine x-rays, however, a full set was not completed. Five x-rays were taken of Marchand's chest and neck by John H. Truksa, M.D. (Truksa), a radiologist. Farris removed or caused to have removed the restraints immobilizing Marchand's neck. Following his treatment in the emergency room, Marchand was admitted as an in-patient and transferred to the Intensive Care Unit under Blome's supervision. Truksa did not review Marchand's x-rays until the following day.
On March 14, 1987, Marchand underwent further evaluations. While in the Intensive Care Unit he began to exhibit symptoms of a cervical spine fracture and complained of numbness in his extremities. Later that day Marchand reported that he had no feeling from his chest down. After these facts were related to Marchand's doctors, they discovered that he had broken his neck at the C7-T1 level. Marchand became and remains paralyzed.
Marchand filed a medical malpractice claim in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho naming Farris, Blome, Truksa, Mercy Medical Center and Rogers as co-defendants and alleging that his doctors' failure to diagnose and treat his spinal fracture caused his paralysis. The jury found in favor of Marchand and against Farris, Blome and Truksa, as joint and several tortfeasors, awarding
$4.2 million in damages. Mercy Medical Center and Rogers were found not liable.
A special verdict form was used in Marchand. The jury was instructed the following:
You are instructed that should you return a verdict for the plaintiff against more than one of the defendants, both as to the failure to meet the applicable standard of care and as to proximate cause, and award damages therefor , any such verdict and damages will be the joint and several responsibility of each of those defendants. The plaintiff may thereafter seek payment of the entire amount from any or all of the defendants found to be at fault.
Next is an advisory question which asks you to assign percentages of fault:
Insert in the answer to Question No. 12 the percentage of fault for the injuries resulting to Plaintiff Kevin Marchand which you find attributable to each party. If, in any of Question Nos. 1 through 10, you found that a party did not violate the applicable standard of care, or that any act or failure to act by that party was not a proximate cause of plaintiff's injuries, and you therefore answered "no" to either question applicable to that party, you are to enter a zero (0) for that party on the appropriate line in Question No. 12. Your percentages must total 100 percent.
(emphasis added).
The jury assigned the following percentages of fault: Blome — 33%, Truksa — 33% and Farri
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