Bullitt County Court House (Older one) Photo by Michael Stevens 2014
The Kentucky Court of Appeals announced 24 decisions on November 21, 2014, with none of the Court of Appeals opinions designated to be published.
Click here for links to all the archived Court of Appeals minutes.
“Continue reading” for the Tort Report and a complete copy of this week’s minutes of ALL decisions with links to their full text.
The Tort Report – Selected decisions this week on tort, insurance and civil law (none other than the published whistleblower decision):
1030. Affirmed a unanimous defense verdict in medical malpractice/negligence claim.
Estate of Richard Willis vs. Paula D. Bailey, M.D. & Stevens Shedlofsky, M.D.
COA, Not Published 11/26/2014
Fayette, Affirming
VANMETER, JUDGE: Roger Osborne, as Administrator of the Estate of Richard Willis and as Guardian for Madysen Willis; and Tanner Willis, individually, (hereinafter collectively referred to as “the Estate”) appeal from the February 27, 2013, judgment of the Fayette Circuit Court dismissing their medical malpractice claims filed against Dr. Paula Bailey and Dr. Steven Shedlofsky. For the following reasons, we affirm.
On appeal, the Estate presents three claims of error for our review. First, the Estate argues the trial court abused its discretion by denying its motion to continue the trial date due to the unavailability of its medical expert to appear at trial. Based on our review of the record, we are unable to say the court’s decision not to grant another continuance was an abuse of its discretion.
Next, the Estate argues the trial court failed to seat a non-prejudicial jury panel and the jury failed to properly deliberate the issues presented. Specifically, the Estate maintains the jury was unable to be fair and impartial due to connections with UK Medical Center and the jury’s deliberation of approximately one hour was too short for it to adequately consider the evidence presented. The Estate does not identify any juror who sat on the panel who it alleges should not have due to bias. As a result, we find no merit in this alleged error. Furthermore, the Estate does not identify a single act of misconduct with respect to jury deliberations. It simply speculates that the jury’s deliberation of approximately one hour indicates jury misconduct. The Estate’s displeasure with the length of jury deliberations, without any evidence of jury misconduct, does not warrant a new trial and the trial court properly denied one on this basis.
Lastly, the Estate contends the trial court abused its discretion by denying its motion to limit “defensive use” of evidence concerning the six-month sobriety rule for liver transplants. We review a trial court’s evidentiary rulings for an abuse of discretion. Barnett v. Commonwealth, 317 S.W.3d 49, 61 (Ky. 2010) (citation omitted). In addition, the Combs standard for expert testimony is inapplicable to Dr. Shedlofsky’s factual testimony as a treating physician. Regardless, the record reflects that the testimony of Dr. Shedlofsky and two defense medical experts met the requisite standard for admissibility. Accordingly, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying the Estate’s motion to limit “defensive use” of evidence concerning the six-month sobriety rule for liver transplants.
The judgment of the Fayette Circuit Court is affirmed.
1037. Affirmed trial judge’s dismissal of complaint for lack of prosecution
D.F. Bailey vs. GRW Engineers, Inc.
COA Not Published 11/26/2014
Affirming, Fayette
ACREE, CHIEF JUDGE: We must decide whether the Fayette Circuit Court abused its discretion when it dismissed the complaint of Appellant D. F. Bailey, Inc. for failure to timely prosecute. We find no abuse and affirm.
[gview file=”https://kycourtreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/MNT11262014.pdf”]
