Title: Roberts v. Hutchins

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

613 So. 2d 348 (1993)
Dr. Curtis ROBERTS and Dr. Roger D. Eiland
v.
Sharon HUTCHINS, as administratrix of the Estate of Freeman Hutchins, Jr., deceased.
1911387.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
January 29, 1993.
Michael K. Wright, Walter W. Bates and Sybil Vogtle Abbot of Starnes & Atchison, Birmingham, for appellants.
M. Clay Alspaugh and Shay Samples of Hogan, Smith, Alspaugh, Samples & Pratt, P.C., Birmingham, for appellee.
*349 STEAGALL, Justice.
Sharon Hutchins, as administratrix of the estate of Freeman Hutchins, Jr., deceased, sued Dr. Curtis Roberts; Dr. Roger Eiland; Surgery Practice, P.C.; and Central Alabama Community Hospital, alleging medical malpractice. The jury returned a verdict of $1 million against Dr. Roberts, Dr. Eiland, and Surgery Practice, and found for the hospital. The court entered a judgment based on that verdict. Dr. Roberts and Dr. Eiland appeal. The sole issue on review is whether the trial court improperly dismissed for cause seven potential jurors who were, or had been, patients of the defendant physicians and who described one or the other of them as their "family doctor."
The defendants argue that the trial court based its dismissal on an erroneous interpretation of Dixon v. Hardey, 591 So. 2d 3 (Ala.1991). In that case, the plaintiff sued her gynecologist, alleging medical malpractice. During the course of jury selection, the trial court refused to strike for cause a potential juror who was a patient of the defendant doctor. Although the potential juror expressed doubt as to whether she could serve without bias, the trial court did not question her to determine whether this bias existed, and it prevented the plaintiff's counsel from inquiring further into the subject. This Court recognized the "intimate or trusted relationship" that develops between a patient and her gynecologist and held that proof of such a relationship is prima facie evidence of probable prejudice on the part of a veniremember. Once this prima facie evidence has been presented, "`it is the trial court's function to question the juror further, so as to ascertain whether the juror can be impartial.'" Dixon, at 7, quoting Knop v. McCain, 561 So. 2d 229, 234 (Ala. 1989). Even if a juror eventually states that he or she could render a verdict exclusively upon the evidence, the simple affirmative response does not necessarily absolve that juror of probable prejudice. Dixon.
In this case, the record shows that at the outset of the jury selection process, a number of jurors indicated that they were, or had been, patients of the defendant physicians. The trial court asked the following questions:
The trial court repeated these questions in substance at intervals during the jury selection, and counsel for both parties also asked questions to determine if the veniremembers harbored any bias based on their relationship with the defendants. None of the veniremembers responded to these questions. The trial court gave the attorneys for both sides an opportunity to further question the jurors on the matter, but they declined to do so. The trial court then dismissed for cause seven of the jurors who had said they were patients of Dr. Eiland.
The defendants contend that the trial court improperly interpreted Dixon to mean that a potential juror in a medical malpractice case who is a patient of the defendant must automatically be struck from the venire, and they point out that Dixon expressly rejects such an absolute rule of exclusion. The record reveals, however, that the trial court merely accepted the jurors' relationship to the defendants as prima facie evidence of probable prejudice. This presumption was apparently rebutted as to the eight jurors who had been patients of the defendants but were allowed to remain on the venire. The trial court set out the following reasons for dismissing the other seven veniremembers:
We emphasize that a trial judge is given broad discretion in regard to sustaining or denying a challenge for cause, and his decision is therefore entitled to great weight and will not be interfered with unless it is clearly erroneous and equivalent to an abuse of discretion. Kumar v. Lewis, 561 So. 2d 1082 (Ala.1990). Here, it is clear that the trial court based its determination upon its own observations and impressions of the potential jurors, not upon an inaccurate application of our opinion in Dixon. The record indicates no abuse of the trial court's discretion; therefore, the judgment is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
MADDOX, ALMON, ADAMS and INGRAM, JJ., concur.