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Uhlmansiek v. Salvation Army2/18/2005
{ } The plaintiff-appellant, Jay D. Uhlmansiek, appeals from the order of the trial court denying his motion for a new trial on his personal-injury claim against the defendants-appellees, the Salvation Army and Robert. S. Jones. A jury had returned a general verdict of $6,829.64 in Uhlmansiek's favor. The trial court then granted a motion by the Salvation Army and Jones "to Remit and/or Reduce Judgment" by a stipulated amount representing monies advanced by the Salvation Army to assist Uhlmansiek in the payment of medical bills prior to trial. Having objected to the reduction, Uhlmansiek filed a motion for a new trial, arguing that the resulting award was inadequate and given under the influence of prejudice, that the judgment was not sustained by the weight of the evidence, and that the court erred by admitting certain medical evidence. The trial court overruled the motion.
{ } In his three assignments of error, Uhlmansiek now asserts that the trial court erred by (1) reducing the judgment by the sum of $7,319, (2) failing to grant his motion for a new trial, and (3) failing to grant his motion to strike certain medical evidence. For the following reasons, we agree with Uhlmansiek's second assignment of error and thus reverse.
I.
{ } Since our resolution of the assignments of error is based largely upon procedural matters, we forgo a lengthy recitation of the facts underlying Uhlmansiek's claim against the Salvation Army and Jones. Suffice it to say, Uhlmansiek allegedly suffered injury to his right biceps tendon (which had previously been surgically reattached) after Jones, a Salvation Army employee, drove one of the charity's trucks into his car. The parties do not disagree, and, in fact, stipulated prior to trial, that the Salvation Army, recognizing its potential liability, paid certain medical bills on behalf of Uhlmansiek. The amount of the medical bills paid by the Salvation Army, as stipulated by the parties, was $7,493.64.
{ } At trial there was conflicting expert testimony about whether the accident either had caused Uhlmansiek a new injury or had aggravated his pre-existing injury. The jury returned a general verdict of $6,829.64, in other words, less than the total amount of the medical bills paid by the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army and Jones then filed a motion "to remit and/or reduce judgment" by the amount of medical bills ($7,493.64) that the parties had stipulated had been paid by the Salvation Army.
{ } Uhlmansiek objected to the motion. His first ground for objection, apparently inspired by the Salvation's Army status as a charitable institution, was that the organization had made the payments strictly as a volunteer. His second ground, however, was considerably more compelling: that it was "impossible to determine from the general verdict whether or not the monies awarded by the jury were for medical care and treatment for which [the Salvation Army] made any payment." He argued further that if the court were to somehow assume that the entire $6,829.64 had been awarded for economic damages, it was also required to conclude that the jury had awarded him nothing for his pain and suffering, which would have made the award legally inadequate.
{ } Notwithstanding Uhlmansiek's objections, the trial court, by entry dated September 27, 2002, granted the Salvation Army's and Jones's motion. Specifically, the court ordered that the award of $6,829.64 be "reduced by the amount of $7,319.00, being the total amount of the medical bills paid by the defendants on behalf of the Plaintiff."
{ } Uhlmansiek subsequently filed his motion for a new trial. The grounds for the motion were (1) that the trial court
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