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Duchamp v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.11/2/2005
Court composed of Sylvia R. Cooks, Oswald A. Decuir, and Marc T. Amy, Judges.
AFFIRMED.
The plaintiff brought suit for injuries he alleges he sustained in an automobile accident with the defendant in 2000. A jury awarded him damages, including an award of $85,000.00 for future medical expenses, but no award for future pain and suffering. The district court granted a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, awarding the plaintiff $100,000.00 for future pain and suffering in addition to the damages awarded by the jury. For the following reasons, we affirm.
Factual and Procedural Background
Shortly after midnight on Friday, December 3, 2000, Charles Duchamp was in Westlake, Louisiana, driving to the Isle of Capri Casino, where he worked as a Dual Rate Supervisor. He testified that while he was stopped for a traffic light, a pick-up truck driven by Ernest Loftin rear-ended the car he was driving. Westlake police officer Jeffrey Sigmund was called to the scene, but did not issue any traffic citations. Officer Sigmund stated that Mr. Loftin told him that he had been blinded by the headlights of a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction just before the impact. Although Mr. Duchamp testified that he had begun to feel soreness in his neck immediately after the accident, he took Tylenol and went to work.
After his shift finished later that morning, he testified that he picked up the accident report from the police station, visited the office of his automobile insurer, and went home to sleep. The plaintiff stated that he awoke that evening feeling "stiff as a board" and that his soreness continued throughout the weekend. After he finished work on Monday morning, the plaintiff visited his regular internist with complaints of neck and back pain, and headaches. The plaintiff alleges that his condition continued to deteriorate following the accident, resulting in pain radiating down his arms and legs, facial drooping and numbness, and loss of libido. He underwent numerous treatments in the years following the accident including physical therapy, chiropractic care, and epidural injections.
He brought suit on December 3, 2001 against Ernest Loftin and his insurers, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company and State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, for the damages he sustained in the accident. His wife also filed a loss of consortium claim. At the jury trial on the matter, the defendants challenged whether all of the treatments were necessary and whether injuries alleged by the plaintiff were attributable to another rear-end accident in which the plaintiff was involved in October 2003. The jury awarded damages as follows:
Past Physical and Mental Pain and Suffering $20,000.00 Future Physical and Mental Pain and Suffering $0.00 Past Medical Expenses $25,000.00 Future Medical Expenses $85,000.00 Loss of Enjoyment of Life $15,000.00 Loss of consortium for Margaret Duchamp $7,500.00 TOTAL AMOUNT $152,500.00 The plaintiff subsequently requested a judgment notwithstanding the verdict from the trial court, alleging that the jury's failure to award damages for future pain and suffering constituted legal error. The trial court granted the JNOV and awarded the plaintiff $100,000.00 for future pain and suffering in addition to the damages awarded by the jury.
The defendants appeal, asserting that the trial court erred in "granting JNOV and overturning a reasonable jury determination to reject a claim of future pain and suffering[,]" and that the jury erred in "finding that the plaintiff would not suffer future pain and suffering but providing an award for future medical expenses."
Discussion
Judgment N
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