Case Title: Nazarenko v. CTI Trucking Co.

Citation: 313 Ark. 570, 856 S.W.2d 869

Docket Number: 

State: arkansas

Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Date: 1993-06-28T00:00:00Z

Document:
856 S.W.2d 869 (1993) 313 Ark. 570 Mike NAZARENKO, Appellant, v. CTI TRUCKING CO., INC. & Randy Justice, Appellees. No. 93-118. Supreme Court of Arkansas. June 28, 1993. *870 Don P. Chaney, Benny M. Tucker, Arkadelphia, for appellant. Walter A. Murray, Little Rock, for appellees. HOLT, Chief Justice. Mike Nazarenko sued CTI Trucking Co., Inc. (CTI) and its driver, Randy Justice, appellees, for his injuries and damages resulting from their negligence. The jury returned a verdict in the appellees' favor. Mr. Nazarenko then filed a motion for a new trial claiming the trial court committed an error of law by permitting testimony favorable to the appellees in violation of the collateral source rule. The trial court denied the motion and Mr. Nazarenko appeals. We agree with the trial court and affirm. Mr. Nazarenko sustained back injuries during the delivery of a roll of carpet by CTI to his employer, Sherwin-Williams, located in Arkadelphia. According to Mr. Nazarenko, he and Mr. Justice were unloading a large roll of carpet using a "carpet jack" when Mr. Justice pushed the roll and caused a steel pipe part of the carpet jack to strike Mr. Nazarenko in the chest. To avoid being crushed, Mr. Nazarenko caught the raised carpet roll weighing about 800 pounds. He alleged that this caused his back injury which required surgery. Mr. Nazarenko brought suit claiming that Mr. Justice was negligent in handling the roll of carpet as it was being unloaded from the truck and that he was entitled to monetary relief for the resulting damages he suffered. After the jury returned a verdict for CTI, Mr. Nazarenko filed a motion for a new trial on the basis that the trial court committed an error of law in allowing defense counsel to proceed with a line of questioning which violated the collateral source rule. In ruling against Mr. Nazarenko on this motion, the trial court found: Under the facts before us, we cannot say that the trial court erred in denying the motion for a new trial. The record reveals the trial court granted a pretrial motion in limine prohibiting CTI from referring to Mr. Nazarenko's workers' compensation payment which covered some of his medical bills. However, this information was furnished to the jury by Mr. Nazarenko's own witness, Mitch Fendley, the branch manager of Sherwin-Williams, when Mr. Fendley stated on direct-examination that on the day of the incident he "suggested that [Mr. Nazarenko] go to the doctor and, of course, that day I calledSherwin-Williams has an eight hundred number for their workers' compensation program within the company." He next said, "I called them and notified them, and we had Mike [Nazarenko], I believe, report to Dr. John Bomar for treatment." In his brief, Mr. Nazarenko states that he is not seeking appellate relief because Mitch Fendley's testimony was "presented to the jury unsolicited by him and was prejudicial to him" since his own attorney brought workers' compensation out on direct examination, but instead he "has come before this court seeking relief ... because appellee's counsel then intentionally and deliberately aggravated the prior injection of workers' compensation to the jury with his questioning of Mr. Nazarenko." Mr. Nazarenko supports his position by quoting at length trial testimony and exchanges between the court and counsel as follows. Mr. Nazarenko testified on direct examination: After these questions, the following bench conference took place out of the hearing of the jury. At this time, CTI's counsel stated that he did not want to risk the possibility of a mistrial, and the trial judge asked the attorneys to approach the bench. The following conversation then took place: Mr. Nazarenko was further questioned on cross-examination by CTI's attorney: At this time an in camera conference was held off the record and out of the hearing of the jury. The trial then resumed. At this time, another bench conference was held out of the hearing of the jury: Mr. Nazarenko's cross-examination by Mr. Murray continued: Based on these excerpts and Mr. Nazarenko's arguments on appeal, we glean that the crux of his complaint is that the cumulative effect of defense counsel questioning him about unpaid medical bills and unpaid college debts violated the collateral source rule and that the trial court was in error in not granting a new trial. *875 Arkansas R.Civ.P. 59 governs the award of a new trial to a party in a lawsuit. Rule 59(a) sets out eight grounds for the granting of a new trial and, without citing this rule, Mr. Nazarenko presumably argues on appeal he is entitled to a new trial pursuant to the eighth ground, error of law, because the collateral source rule was violated. Under Ark.R.Civ.P. 59(a)(8), a new trial may be granted where an error of law occurred at trial and was objected to by the party making the application and that error materially affected the substantial rights of the moving party. We summarized the error of law argument for a new trial in Security Ins. Co. v. Owen, 255 Ark. 526, 501 S.W.2d 229 (1973): Error of law occurring at the trial and objected to by the moving party is one of the statutory grounds for a new trial. The trial court has a broad latitude of discretion in the granting of new trials. This discretion is not limited to cases where sufficiency of the evidence is the ground for the motion. Of course, the latitude of the trial judge's discretion is much broader where the question is whether a jury verdict is supported by a preponderance of the evidence, because of the peculiar advantage of his position in evaluating all the factors bearing upon it. In determining questions as to errors of law, his position is not of the same superiority to that of the appellate court. Still, the action of the trial judge on a motion for new trial upon a statutory ground should not be reversed in the absence of manifest abuse of his discretion. Security Ins. Co. at 529-30, 501 S.W.2d at 231-2 (citations omitted). See also Crowder v. Flippo, 263 Ark. 433, 565 S.W.2d 138 (1978). On appeal, Mr. Nazarenko cites Patton v. Williams, 284 Ark. 187, 680 S.W.2d 707 (1984) in support of his argument, but his reliance on our holding in Patton is misplaced. In Patton, the appellee's attorney conducted his cross-examination of the appellant in such a way that he invited comment on the payment of certain medical bills by a collateral source and then used the appellant's response to portray him as being an untruthful person, when, in fact, the appellant had told the truth. The record before us does not reflect any similarities between the conduct of counsel in this case and counsel in Patton. Here, evidence of workers' compensation coverage was first brought to light by Mr. Nazarenko's own witness and not mentioned again until Mr. Nazarenko, on direct examination, testified that he could not afford to go see a doctor. Obviously, his testimony in this regard was subject to cross-examination on this point. We cannot say that CTI's counsel, on cross-examination, invited comment as to payment by a collateral source and then attempted to use his response to show he was an untruthful person. There are close similarities between this case and our recent decision in Babbitt v. Quik-Way Lube & Tire, Inc., 313 Ark. 207, 853 S.W.2d 273 (1993) in which we held there was no error where the trial court allowed a defense attorney to cross-examine a plaintiff in a tort case on insurance coverage after the plaintiff testified that she had not been to a doctor to obtain medical care because she didn't have the money when she in fact had medical coverage under her husband's insurance policy. We said: Our recent case of Younts v. Baldor Elec. Co., 310 Ark. 86, 832 S.W.2d 832 (1992) controls. There, during direct examination, counsel asked Younts whether he had been able to reopen his business after the fire, and Younts said, "Haven't been able to afford it." Defense *876 counsel argued during an in-camera hearing that Younts' testimony opened the door for counsel to show Younts had received an insurance settlement. The trial court agreed, and we affirmed on appeal. In doing so, we cited the general rule that it is improper for either party to introduce or elicit evidence of the other party's insurance coverage and stated this principle is part of the collateral source rule which excludes evidence of benefits received by a plaintiff from a source collateral to the defendant. We further recognized in Younts, that, when a party testifies about his or her financial condition in a false or misleading manner, he or she opens the door for the introduction of evidence which might otherwise be inadmissible under the collateral source rule. See also Peters v. Pierce, 308 Ark. 60, 823 S.W.2d 820 (1992). In upholding the trial court's rule to allow defense counsel to inquire of Younts' insurance settlement, we stated as follows: In the present case, Babbitt's counsel invited Babbitt to explain why she saw him before having seen a doctor. The purpose of such questioning was to give Babbitt an opportunity to say, "I didn't have the money ... [t]hey want their money up front when you go to the doctor... I didn't have the money then." As was the situation in Younts, Babbitt's counsel's question and Babbitt's response had no relevance to any issue in the case. Instead, Babbitt's testimony that she could not go to a doctor for treatment could have mislead the jury. Under these facts, we are unable to say the trial court abused its discretion in permitting Quik-Way's counsel to elicit information that afforded the jury a complete and full picture of Babbitt's financial situation. Babbitt at 210-11, 853 S.W.2d at 275 (emphasis added). See also Evans v. Wilson, 279 Ark. 224, 650 S.W.2d 569 (1983) (one of the four exceptions to the collateral source rule is where collateral source evidence is used to rebut the plaintiff's testimony that he was compelled by financial necessity to return to work prematurely or to forego additional medical care), rev'd on other grounds, 284 Ark. 101, 679 S.W.2d 205 (1984). In light of our holdings in Younts and Babbitt, we cannot say that there was a manifest abuse of discretion on the part of the trial court. Mr. Nazarenko also argues that CTI's counsel further aggravated the prior injection of workers' compensation into the trial by stating in closing argument that Dr. Gocio had testified that Mr. Nazarenko's medical bills had been paid. Examination of the record reflects that Mr. Nazarenko did not object to this statement during closing, nor did he request the trial court to instruct or admonish the jury concerning the remarks of counsel in this regard. As we said in Miller v. State, 309 Ark. 117, 120, 827 S.W.2d 149, 150 (1992), "few tenets are more firmly established than the rule requiring a contemporaneous objection in order to preserve a point for review on appeal." Watson v. State, 290 Ark. 484, *877 720 S.W.2d 310 (1986). Thus, this issue was not properly preserved for appeal. See also Sheridan v. State, 313 Ark. 23, 852 S.W.2d 772 (1993) (court's failure to give an admonitory instruction was not prejudicial error in the absence of a request). For all the foregoing reasons, we affirm.