Atterholt v. Herbst

Rule of Law:

When a claimant seeks excess damages from the Patient's Compensation Fund after obtaining a judgment or settlement from a healthcare provider in a medical malpractice case, the Fund may introduce evidence of the claimant’s preexisting risk of harm if it is relevant to establish the amount of damages, even if it is also relevant to liability issues that are foreclosed by the judgment or settlement.

Facts:

• On March 6, 2002, 34-year-old Jeffry Herbst suffered from a fever, congestion, nausea, loss of appetite, and decreased urine output.
• At 10:30 a.m. that day, Herbst’s primary care physician diagnosed his condition as bilateral pneumonia and sent him to the hospital.
• Herbst died at 9:00 p.m. that night, and an autopsy determined that he died of fulminant myocarditis, an acute and severe inflammation of the heart.
• Herbst’s Estate sought to bring a wrongful death action against the primary care physician, the physician’s employer, and the hospital.
• A medical review panel determined that the primary care physician failed to meet the appropriate standard of care, but this failure was not a factor in Herbst’s death, while the hospital met the standard of care.
• Herbst’s Estate subsequently settled with the primary care physician and the hospital under an agreement that permitted access to the Patient’s Compensation Fund.

Procedural Posture:

• Herbst's Estate filed a proposed complaint with a medical review panel, as required by the Medical Malpractice Act, alleging that healthcare providers failed to meet the standard of care, contributing to Jeffry Herbst's death.
• The medical review panel found that the primary care physician failed to meet the standard of care, but that this failure was not a factor in Jeffry Herbst's death.
• Herbst's Estate settled with the primary care physician and the hospital for a total of $187,001, allowing the Estate to seek excess damages from the Patient's Compensation Fund.
• The Estate then brought an action in Marion Superior Court, seeking additional damages from the Patient's Compensation Fund.
• The Estate moved for partial summary judgment, requesting a preliminary determination that the court would only assess damages, and the Fund could not litigate liability or proximate causation.
• The trial court granted the Estate's motion for partial summary judgment without explanation.
• At a bench trial, the Fund attempted to introduce expert testimony that Jeffry Herbst had a less than ten percent chance of surviving regardless of proper care and would have been unable to return to work, but the trial court excluded this evidence.
• The trial court found that the Estate's damages would exceed $2,500,000 and awarded the Estate the statutory maximum of $1 million from the Fund.
• The Fund appealed to the Indiana Court of Appeals, arguing that the trial court erred in granting partial summary judgment and in excluding the expert testimony, where the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's decision.
• The Indiana Supreme Court granted transfer.