No monthly summaries for November 2014.
In the midst of snow and freezing temps, remember spring will come again. Here is a picture of some of my Day Lilies. Expected appearance in mid-summer. Photo by Mike S.
However, here are the summaries of published decisions for the month of December 2014.
Supreme Court of Kentucky released today its summary of published decisions for December 2014. Just remember these are always released months after the last minutes for the month are posted (in real time) by the AOC.
Click here for other posts with the Kentucky Court Report listing monthly summaries of SCOKY published decisions.
Click here for a complete list of monthly summaries archived at the Kentucky Supreme Court web site.
Here are extracts of the published decisions useful to insurance and injury lawyers:
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE:
Ira Branham, ETC., et al. v. Troy C. Rock, M.D. et al.
2012-SC-000707-DG December 18, 2014
Opinion of the Court by Justice Keller. All sitting. Minton, CJ; Abramson, Cunningham, and Noble, JJ. Concur. Venters, J., concurs in result only by separate opinion in which Scott, J. joins.
Ira Branham and his wife were involved in a single vehicle accident. Following the accident, Mrs. Branham was treated initially at Mary Chiles Hospital and then, out of an abundance of caution, flown to UK Medical Center. Physicians at UK evaluated Mrs. Branham and released her. Thirty-six hours later, Mrs. Branham died from a ruptured aorta that had been caused by blunt force trauma. Ira Branham sued the UK medical center and the physicians who cared for his wife there. The jury found in favor of the defendants.
On appeal Branham argued that the trial court improperly excluded evidence of one physician’s difficulties with the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure and evidence of another physician’s problem passing the medical board licensure examination. The Court held that the evidence was properly excluded as collateral to the issue of malpractice.
Branham next argued that the trial court should have limited the number of expert witnesses called by the multiple defendants. The Court held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in permitting the defendants to call the experts they did.
The third issue raised by Branham had to do with the jury instructions. The instructions asked the jury to determine whether the physicians had violated their standard of care and whether that violation “was a substantial factor in causing” Mrs. Branham’s death. Branham wanted an instruction that asked the jury to determine if any violation of the standard of care “was a substantial factor in the failure to diagnose” Mrs. Branham’s aortic injury. Branham argued that, under Deutsch v. Shein, 597 S.W.2d 141 (Ky. 1980), he was entitled to that instruction. The Court analyzed use of the Deutsch instruction in prior cases and concluded that such an instruction should be used where there is a supervening intervening cause for the injury. Here, the Court concluded that there was no evidence of a supervening intervening cause; therefore, the trial court was not required to use a Deutsch instruction. Finally, the Court did not address Branham’s claim that the trial court incorrectly afforded the UK Medical Center immunity because it was not necessary to do so. However, the Court indicated that, given the appropriate case, it might be inclined to revisit the immunity issue.
For the complete list of all published decisions from the AOC for this month, then click “continue reading”:
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