Walker v. Cuppett

• Decision Date: 05 May 2004
• Docket Number: No. 29A02-0212-CV-1039.,29A02-0212-CV-1039.
• Citation: 808 N.E.2d 85
• Parties: Todd WALKER, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Michael Walker, deceased, Appellant-Defendant, v. Joan CUPPETT, Appellee-Plaintiff.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

808 N.E.2d 85

Todd WALKER, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Michael Walker, deceased, Appellant-Defendant, v. Joan CUPPETT, Appellee-Plaintiff.

No. 29A02-0212-CV-1039.

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

May 5, 2004.

Marc Lloyd, Smith, Fisher, Maas & Howard, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Robert E. Lehman, Lehman & Associates, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellee.

OPINION

BARNES, Judge.

Case Summary

The Estate of Michael Walker appeals the trial court's judgment against it in the amount of $81,808.79 in a personal injury action brought by Joan Cuppett. We reverse and remand.

Issues

The issues we address today are:

I. whether the trial court improperly precluded the Estate from introducing into evidence unredacted versions of Cuppett's medical records and bills, limited the Estate's examination of three doctors, and excluded Walker's videotaped deposition from evidence; and

II. whether the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to grant the Estate leave to conduct an independent medical exam ("IME") of Cuppett.

Facts

On February 3, 1998, Walker rear-ended Cuppett's car. Cuppett initially did not complain of any injuries, and no ambulance was called. While driving home, however, she began experiencing pain in her neck, right shoulder, and right elbow, and she stopped at a chiropractor's office to receive treatment for that pain. She also claims to have begun experiencing severe headaches that night, which have continued off and on since that time. Cuppett also testified that she has continued to have pain on the right side of her neck and in her right shoulder intermittently since the accident; her right elbow pain went away after about a month.

Cuppett first visited her family physician, Dr. Patrick Foley, regarding her neck, shoulder, and elbow pain on February 11, 1998, eight days after the accident. At this visit, Dr. Foley told Cuppett that her pain was most likely related to soft tissue injury, but he ordered x-rays, then a CT scan, to be taken of her elbow and neck to rule out any fractures. The x-rays and CT scan did not reveal any fractures, but did reveal the existence of degenerative arthritic conditions in her cervical spine, i.e. her neck, that were more pronounced on the right side. At the February 11 visit, Dr. Foley also refilled Cuppett's prescription for Fiorinal, a headache medicine that she apparently had been taking before the accident. Cuppett also continued seeing her chiropractor, and a note in the chiropractor's chart indicated that she was released from treatment in December 1998. However, Cuppett actually continued visiting the chiropractor until June 2000; at many of these visits Cuppett was treated for pain in her lower back and/or knee, which she has never claimed was caused by the accident, as well as for neck pain and headaches.

Cuppett stopped seeing Dr. Foley at the end of 1998. At her first visit with her new primary care doctor in January 1999, she made no complaints of neck pain. However, she did make such complaints at later visits, during which she was also treated at various times for other ailments or conditions including allergies, hypertension, high cholesterol, asthma, gastroesophageal reflux disease, menopause, degenerative conditions in her knees, and obesity. Cuppett also had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia before the accident. In June of 2000, Cuppett's primary care doctor referred her to the Pain Management Center of Community Hospitals Indianapolis for treatment of her continuing neck pain. She was initially seen there by Dr. David O'Brien, who opined that her chronic neck pain was consistent "with possible mild facet arthritis since that mediated the pain and/or some myofascial pain in the soft tissues in the right cervical paraspinal region." Def. Ex. A. Thereafter, Cuppett was under the care of Dr. James Crawford, who believed her neck pain was caused solely by myofascial problems stemming from the 1998 automobile accident and treated her accordingly. She has visited physical therapists, an acupuncturist, and a pain psychologist for treatment of her neck pain. Dr. Crawford testified in an evidentiary deposition that Cuppett's continuing neck pain was caused by the accident, that all of her claimed medical bills related to that pain were reasonable and necessary because of the accident, and he also outlined his estimate of her future medical bills.

Cuppett sued Walker on May 27, 1998. As part of a pre-trial order, the parties were required to name their expert witnesses by October 1, 2000. Walker did not name any expert witnesses by that date. Additionally, Walker was required to schedule any IME of Cuppett no later than ninety days before trial. Walker died in May 2001, but not before he gave a videotaped evidentiary deposition in which he described the accident and his interaction with Cuppett immediately thereafter.

Eventually, a trial date of April 9, 2002, was set. On February 25, 2002, the trial court granted partial summary judgment to Cuppett on the issue of liability, finding Walker was 100 percent at fault for the accident. On March 25, 2002, the Estate filed its first motion for leave to allow an IME of Cuppett, for the stated reason that it had just learned for the first time that Cuppett had continued seeing her chiropractor from December 1998 to June 2000. On April 8, 2002, the trial court continued the trial, which was eventually re-set for November 12, 2002. It did not rule on the Estate's motion for an IME until November 4, 2002, at which time it denied the motion. On the same day, the trial court granted Cuppett's motion in limine to prevent the Estate from presenting "Any Evidence of a Pre-Existing Affliction or Condition Not Supported by Admissible Expert Medical Opinion," "Any Evidence of Unrelated and Post-Collision or Subsequent Injuries/Occurrence Not Supported by Admissible Medical Opinion," or "Any Evidence of Low Impact Collision and Relationship to Joan Cuppett's Physical Injuries." App. pp. 117-18. Because of this ruling, Cuppett was allowed to redact from her medical records any reference to the arthritis or other non-accident related conditions in her neck, her diagnosis of fibromyalgia, and her pre-accident treatment for headaches. Cuppett was also allowed to prevent the jury from hearing any reference to these matters in pre-trial evidentiary depositions conducted of Dr. Crawford and one of her physical therapists, Dr. David Cross, or in the trial testimony of Dr. Foley. The remainder of the depositions of Drs. Crawford and Cross were presented to the jury; Dr. Foley also was permitted to testify to other matters. Cuppett also redacted any mention of other ailments in the medical bills she submitted into evidence and that she sought to collect from the Estate. The trial court also prevented the Estate from presenting any of Walker's evidentiary deposition to the jury.

A jury trial on the issue of damages commenced on November 12 and ended on November 15, 2002. At the conclusion of the evidence, Cuppett moved for judgment on the evidence. The trial court granted the motion in part with respect to all of Cuppett's claimed past medical bills in the amount of $17,025.99; it denied the motion with respect to her claimed future medical expenses. The jury then returned with a total verdict of $27,026.00, which included the judgment on the evidence amount. On December 12, 2002, Cuppett moved for Indiana Trial Rule 37 sanctions against the Estate for failing to admit certain facts with respect to her claimed damages. Cuppett also moved simultaneously for additur and judgment notwithstanding the verdict. On December 16, 2002, the Estate filed its notice of appeal. On January 14, 2003, the clerk of the trial court completed the record and the Estate filed its case summary. On February 11, 2003, the trial court granted Cuppett's motion for sanctions. It also granted additur, finding Cuppett was entitled to future medical expenses of $64,783, based on Dr. Crawford's testimony, for a total judgment of $81,808.79 when added to the past medical expenses. We have consolidated the Estate's appeals from the original judgment and the February 11, 2003 rulings.

Analysis

Initially, we note that the Estate challenges the trial court's jurisdiction to grant additur. Specifically, the trial court did not grant that motion until February 11, 2003, after the trial court clerk had, on January 14, 2003, filed her notice of completion of the clerk's record, based on the Estate's December 16, 2002 notice of appeal. Under Indiana Appellate Rule 8, we acquire jurisdiction over an appeal on the date the trial court clerk issues her "Notice of Completion of Clerk's Record." "[I]t is well-established that the trial court is deprived of further jurisdiction when appellate jurisdiction is acquired." Southwood v. Carlson, 704 N.E.2d 163, 165 (Ind. Ct.App.1999). However, it is also true that "there are situations in which a trial court may retain jurisdiction and act notwithstanding an appeal," although a trial court "is not permitted to intermeddle with the subject-matter of the appeal." Bradley v. State, 649 N.E.2d 100, 106 (Ind. 1995). A trial court does retain jurisdiction to adjudicate those claims that remain unresolved at the time it otherwise would have lost jurisdiction. Donahue v. Watson, 413 N.E.2d 974, 976 (Ind.Ct.App. 1980).

This is a complex question. On the one hand, the trial court's grant of additur went to the very subject-matter of the appeal. On the other hand, Cuppett's motion for additur was filed before the Estate's notice of appeal and the clerk's notice of completion of the record, and such a motion was a prerequisite to her taking an appeal challenging the adequacy of the judgment. Ind. Trial Rule 59(A)(2). We do not perceive a clear answer to this conundrum. However, because we conclude the trial court erred in granting additur, based on its evidentiary rulings, it is unnecessary to...