Smith by Smith v. Victory Memorial Hosp.

• Decision Date: 16 March 1988
• Docket Number: No. 2-87-0472,2-87-0472
• Citation: 521 N.E.2d 210,118 Ill.Dec. 142,167 Ill.App.3d 618
• Parties: , 118 Ill.Dec. 142 Gabrielle SMITH, a Minor, by Linda Smith, her Mother and Next Friend, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. VICTORY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

Page 210

521 N.E.2d 210

167 Ill.App.3d 618, 118 Ill.Dec. 142

Gabrielle SMITH, a Minor, by Linda Smith, her Mother and Next Friend, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. VICTORY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 2-87-0472.

Appellate Court of Illinois,

Second District.

March 16, 1988.

John R. Garofalo (argued), Kiesler & Berman, Chicago, for Gabrielle Smith, a minor by her mother and next friend Linda Smith and Linda and Charles Smith.

Stephen R. Swofford, H. Anne McKee, Michael F. Henrick (argued), Hinshaw, Culbertson, Moelmann, Hoban & Fuller, Chicago, for Victory Memorial Hosp.

Justice UNVERZAGT delivered the opinion of the court:

Charles and Linda Smith and their minor daughter, Gabrielle, filed suit against Victory Memorial Hospital, alleging that Gabrielle was permanently injured when she experienced a period of oxygen deprivation prior to her birth at the hospital on January 19, 1979. The plaintiffs alleged that hospital personnel failed to detect the hypoxic episode (period of diminished oxygen supply) and to prevent the resulting brain damage to Gabrielle because they were not properly monitoring her fetal heart rate during her mother's labor. Victory Memorial denied those allegations and contended that Gabrielle's mental retardation resulted from an unknown condition or event not related to the birth process. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant, from which plaintiffs appeal.

I

Plaintiffs' first contention is that the trial court erred in refusing their request to permit the jury to view Linda Smith's labor progress chart, a medical record apparently made and kept by the hospital, and in refusing to permit the jury to take the chart into the jury room.

Nurse Eileen Collins, who was the obstetric nurse in charge at Victory Memorial when Gabrielle was delivered, was called as a witness for plaintiffs. She testified from the labor progress chart for January 19, 1979, by reading and explaining the notations she and another nurse had made on it. After Collins' testimony, plaintiffs offered the chart in evidence, and the court admitted it without objection by the defendant. Immediately afterward, however, when plaintiffs sought to introduce an enlargement of the chart, the defense attorney argued that the chart was admissible only to the extent that it had served as Collins' past recollection recorded. He argued that because Collins testified that she did not know who had made certain notations at the top of the chart, the chart was hearsay with regard to those entries and therefore ought not to be viewed by the jury or taken into the jury room. The court sustained defendant's objection, and neither document (the chart or the enlargement of it), though both were admitted into evidence, was shown to the jury or taken into the jury room.

Plaintiffs argue that the court's ruling improperly prevented the jury from seeing for itself that the hospital had provided spaces on the chart for recording the fetal heart rate every 15 minutes, but that Collins had only recorded the rate twice during the 3 1/2-hour period just before Gabrielle's birth. Relying on Collins v. Westlake Community Hospital (1974), 57 Ill.2d 388, 312 N.E.2d 614, plaintiffs argue that the jury was entitled to infer from the absence of other recordings that the heart rate was not observed at any other time during that period.

Supreme Court Rule 236(a) (107 Ill.2d R. 236(a)) facilitates the admission into evidence of records made in the regular course of business. Hospital records are excluded from that rule, however (107 Ill.2d R. 236(b)), and may be admitted under the business records exception to the hearsay rule only if the proponent calls as a witness every person who made entries on those records (see Mayer v. Baisier (1986), 147 Ill.App.3d 150, 157, 100 Ill.Dec. 649, 497 N.E.2d 827), effectively allowing their admission only if they are cumulative of the witnesses' in-court testimony. (Martin v. Zucker (1985), 133 Ill.App.3d 982, 985, 88 Ill.Dec. 980, 479 N.E.2d 1000, citing E. Cleary & M. Graham, Handbook of Illinois Evidence § 803.11, at 578 (4th ed. 1984).) Hospital records are also admissible, however, if they meet any other exception to the hearsay rule, such as past recollection recorded. See, e.g., Wilson v. Parker (1971), 132 Ill.App.2d 5, 269 N.E.2d 523; Healy v. City of Chicago (1969), 109 Ill.App.2d 6, 248 N.E.2d 679.

While Collins explained most of the entries on the chart, she stated that she did not recognize the handwriting at the top. Plaintiffs' attorney therefore did not lay a sufficient foundation to qualify those entries for admission as business records or as a witness' past recollection recorded. (See, e.g., People v. Unes (1986), 143 Ill.App.3d 716, 721, 97 Ill.Dec. 874, 493 N.E.2d 681; Wilson v. Parker, 132 Ill.App.2d at 6-7, 269 N.E.2d 523 (setting out the foundation requirements for admitting a document as a past recollection recorded).) It therefore appears that the court properly permitted the jury to hear only that information from the chart that had been qualified as an exception to the hearsay rule. See generally Lawson v. G.D. Searle & Co. (1976), 64 Ill.2d 543, 556, 1 Ill.Dec. 497, 356 N.E.2d 779 (holding that where portions of a document consist of irrelevant material, the preferred procedure is to have the relevant portions read to the jury).

Although not raised by plaintiffs, we note that hospital records may also qualify as admissions of a party-opponent. (See E. Cleary & M. Graham, Handbook of Illinois Evidence, § 803.11, at 137 (September 1987 Supp.); see generally Oak Lawn Trust & Savings Bank v. City of Palos Heights (1983), 115 Ill.App.3d 887, 896, 71 Ill.Dec. 100, 450 N.E.2d 788 (holding that statements by an agent may constitute an admission which may be introduced as substantive evidence against the principal).) The chart purports to be an original hospital record and was authenticated as such by Collins. We find it unnecessary to determine whether there was a sufficient foundation to qualify every entry on the chart as an admission, however (but see Oak Lawn Trust & Savings Bank v. City of Palos Heights, 115 Ill.App.3d at 896, 71 Ill.Dec. 100, 450 N.E.2d 788 (requiring the proponent to show that the statement was made by an agent in the course of performing his duties and regarding matters within the scope of his employment)), because even if we were to assume that every entry was admissible evidence, we would find no reversible error. Plaintiffs do not claim that the court improperly excluded relevant and admissible evidence--the record establishes that witnesses read to the jury every significant notation contained on the chart. Rather, plaintiffs allege error in the court's refusal to let the jury see the notations that had already been read to it. In short, the court restricted the manner in which it allowed plaintiffs to present this evidence to the jury. However, "the manner and extent of the presentation of evidence are largely within the discretion of the trial court." (People v. Williams (1983), 97 Ill.2d 252, 292, 73 Ill.Dec. 360, 454 N.E.2d 220.) The trial court also has broad discretion to decide whether items of evidence or exhibits may be taken into the jury room, and its decision will not be reversed on appeal absent an abuse of that discretion. ( People v. Williams, 97 Ill.2d at 292, 73 Ill.Dec. 360, 454 N.E.2d 220; Fultz v. Peart (1986), 144 Ill.App.3d 364, 379, 98 Ill.Dec. 285, 494 N.E.2d 212.) Plaintiffs are not entitled to a new trial unless they can demonstrate that they were prejudiced by the court's ruling. (See People v. Williams, 97 Ill.2d at 292, 73 Ill.Dec. 360, 454 N.E.2d 220.) They have not done so.

As stated above, every significant notation contained on the chart was read to the jury at least once during Collins' testimony. She admitted to having made only two recordings, but stated that during the disputed time period she was constantly listening to the fetal heart...