Court Reviews the Jury’s Allocation of Fault in a Medical Malpractice Case

JAMES AND PATRICIA CULLUM, ET AL. v. BAPTIST HOSPITAL SYSTEMS, INC., ET AL. (Tenn. Ct. App. February 17, 2011)

This is an appeal from a jury verdict in a medical malpractice case. Plaintiffs, parents of child who suffered severe, permanent brain injuries during the course of his labor and delivery, filed suit against their physician, physician's employer, and related hospitals.

The physician and her employer settled prior to trial, leaving the related hospitals as the only defendants. This case has been tried twice. Following the first trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of defendants, which the trial court set aside pursuant to the thirteenth juror rule.

The second trial resulted in a verdict for plaintiffs, with the jury assigning 3.75 percent of fault to the defendants and 96.25 percent of fault to the non-party physician. Because the evidence shows that the members of the jury agreed to be bound by the result of a predetermined averaging process, we have concluded that the jury reached a quotient verdict, which is impermissible. Consequently, we reverse and remand the case for a new trial.

Opinion available at:
http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCA/2011/cullumj_021711.pdf