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Schaffer v. Curtis-Perrin3/25/2005
Idaho 521, 538, 903 P.2d 110, 127 (Ct. App. 1995). We believe this reading to be sound. The record discloses that Schaffer's claim for medical expenses included those which were prepaid. The parties agree that she presented the jury with evidence of roughly $26,000 in medical expenses. Our inquiry, then, is whether Schaffer's award included the medical expenses prepaid by Curtis-Perrin.
On the verdict form, the jury was asked to allocate the respective percentages of fault and simply identify Schaffer's "total amount of damages." The jury attributed 100 percent of the fault to Curtis-Perrin and awarded Schaffer $100,000. In crediting the expenses prepaid by Curtis-Perrin, the district judge explained his decision as follows:
he jury did have an opportunity to consider medical bills and expenses as to whether they were reasonably related to the accident. They came up with a sum of $100,000, which could reasonably be inferred to encompass all of the $26,029.11 that set forth in plaintiffs' offer and compilation of billings in Exhibit 13 as well as an amount of compensatory general damages. While the court does not have a special verdict form that delineate precisely whether they considered and grant all those, I think from the court's review of the case and the evidence that was submitted in the final verdict, that the court can safely conclude that the amount of money that was paid out by defendant's insurance company to the plaintiffs' insurance company in subrogation was in fact for medical expenses that were ultimately awarded and encompassed in the jury verdict.
Schaffer argues that Curtis-Perrin was not entitled to any credit because the court could not determine what amounts in the jury's verdict, if any, were for expenses subject to be being credited (creditable expenses). The only way to know what amounts were for creditable expenses, she contends, was for Curtis-Perrin to submit a jury verdict form identifying those portions of the award that covered such expenses. Curtis-Perrin counters that this Court has never required a verdict form identifying which portion of an award is for creditable expenses and which is not.
We have not required defendants to submit special verdict forms when both creditable and non-creditable expenses are sought. The three cases Curtis-Perrin relies on, Beale v. Speck, supra, Potter v. Mulberry, 100 Idaho 429, 599 P.2d 1000 (1979) and Leavitt v. Swain, 133 Idaho 624, 991 P.2d 349 (1999), simply reaffirm the general rule in the statute but do not get into the question of how to identify creditable expenses. In Beale, the defendant reimbursed plaintiffs for daycare wages, house cleaning services, and towing. 127 Idaho at 537, 903 P.2d at 126. Plaintiffs did not seek those expenses at trial. Id. at 538, 903 P.2d at 127. The trial court ruled that whether plaintiffs sought those expenses at trial was irrelevant; defendant was entitled under the statute to a credit for any and all prepaid expenses. Id., 903 P.2d at 127. The Court of Appeals disagreed and, as noted above, held that a defendant is entitled to the credit for prepaid expenses only if plaintiff seeks and recovers those expenses at trial. Id., 903 P.2d at 127. The issue of how to identify the prepaid expenses to be deducted from a general verdict was not before the court.
Nor was the issue presented in Potter. The jury returned a verdict awarding plaintiff $1,315 for property damage and $5,000 for "personal injury damages." 100 Idaho at 430, 599 P.2d at 1001. Defendant had paid plaintiff some amount for medical expenses and some for property damage. Id. at 432, 599 P.2d at 1003. The district court refused to reduce the award under I.C. ยง 41-1840 (though it was
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