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Arthur v. Catour7/21/2005
ble that the insurer paid any medical expenses which could not have been shown to be reasonable in amount and necessary by reason of the injury. Actual payment of medical expense is prima facie evidence of reasonableness").
Second, the rule that a paid bill creates a prima facie case as to the reasonableness of the amount paid is premised upon efficient judicial administration. The rule reflects "the desire to eliminate unnecessary cost to the parties and inconvenience to the public by having to call multiple witnesses." Flynn v. Cusentino, 59 Ill. App. 3d 262, 266 (1978); 11 Ill. Jur. Personal Injury & Torts §5:25 (2002). Indeed, " o require otherwise would unnecessarily inconvenience both the parties, the court, and the public, by requiring doctors and other medical or hospital personnel to leave their normal duties to testify to a matter which should otherwise go undisputed." Flynn, 59 Ill. App. 3d at 266; 11 Ill. Jur. Personal Injury & Torts §5:25 (2002).
The compensatory function of tort law conflicts with the collateral source rule. See, e.g., M. Pollelle & B. Ottley, Illinois Tort Law §24.13, at 24-39 (3d ed. 2000) (the collateral source rule "runs counter to the compensatory damage principle of reimbursement for loss alone"); J. Branton, The Collateral Source Rule, 18 St. Mary's L.J. 883 (1987). "Under the collateral source rule, benefits received by the injured party from a source wholly independent of, and collateral to, the tortfeasor will not diminish damages otherwise recoverable from the tortfeasor." Wilson v. The Hoffman Group, Inc., 131 Ill. 2d 308, 320 (1989); see also Bernier v. Burris, 113 Ill. 2d 219, 242 (1986); 15 Ill. L. & Prac. Damages §40 (2000). The collateral source rule is premised upon the public policy that a benefit that is directed to the injured party should not be shifted so as to become a windfall to the tortfeasor: "the wrongdoer should not benefit from the expenditures made by the injured party or take advantage of contracts or other relations that may exist between the injured party and third persons." Wilson, 131 Ill. 2d at 320. In other words, the rule holds that any collateral benefits that an injured party receives do not reduce the defendant's liability in tort, even though they decrease the plaintiff's loss.
As stated, a plaintiff is considered to be fully compensated when he or she is restored to the position occupied before the tort occurred. Generally, if a plaintiff receives compensation from a third party not connected to the defendant, those benefits are used to reduce the tortfeasor's total damages. 22 Am. Jur. 2d Damages §566 (1988). The collateral source rule changes this general principle of compensatory damages to the extent that the amount of the tortfeasor's liability is not reduced by the compensation received by plaintiff from other sources.
The majority correctly observes that the collateral source rule is often applied where a defendant seeks to reduce damages because the plaintiff has received insurance benefits that in part or in whole indemnify the plaintiff for the loss. Generally, damages recovered by the plaintiff from the defendant are not decreased by the amount the plaintiff received from insurance proceeds, so long as the defendant did not contribute to the payment of the insurance premiums:
"If the plaintiff was himself responsible for the benefit, as by maintaining his own insurance or by making advantageous employment arrangements, the law allows him to keep it for himself. If the benefit was a gift to the plaintiff from a third party or established for him by law, he should not be deprived of the advantage that it confers. The law does not differentiate between the na
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