Opinion ID: 1583518
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Judgment of the Court of Appeal

Text: The Third Circuit Court of Appeal amended the district court's judgment, increasing the award for medical expenses from $185,300 to $1,510,435.02. Shannon Menard v. Lafayette Ins. Co., 09-0029, p. 17 (La.App. 3 Cir. 6/3/09), 13 So.3d 794, 806. In its review of the record, the appellate court found: In evaluating the jury verdict on this issue, we find it to be internally inconsistent. It is clear that the jury rejected Dr. Aiken's opinion that Ms. Menard's injury was minor and should have already resolved itself, but accepted his opinion with regard to the type of future medical treatment she should receive. We reach this conclusion because the difference between the undisputed $96,926.27 in past medical expenses and the $185,300.00 jury award for both past and future medical expenses is $88,373.73. In other words, the jury concluded that Ms. Menard's injuries were sufficiently severe to warrant future care from her treating physicians but, at the same time, tied the hands of those physicians to conduct treatment they deem appropriate.    Here, because Dr. Aiken never examined Ms. Menard and based his opinion solely on his review of her medical records, Dr. Aiken's opinion is entitled to less weight than that of Dr. Gammel, her treating physician. See Estate of Chaisson v. Judice Dirt & Sand, Inc., 94-393 (La.App. 3 Cir. 11/2/94), 649 So.2d 502. However, even if this jury had given full weight to Dr. Aiken's testimony that some of the future suggested treatmentsthe radiofrequency neural ablations and the epidural steroid shotswere not necessary, the jury's verdict is still not consistent with the uncontradicted evidence of what the remaining required future medical treatments would cost. In light of this internally inconsistent verdict, we hold that the jury manifestly erred in failing to award the full value of the medical treatment that was established at trial to be medically necessary, and amend the award to include the present-day value of those future treatments. Ms. Menard and Dr. Gammel both testified that she had not attended the physical therapy sessions that were prescribed for her in the past, so we do not award any costs for physical therapy. We award the costs of the future office visits with Dr. Gammel, the pain medication and muscle relaxers, the epidural steroid injections, the radiofrequency neural ablations, the MRIs, the office visits with Dr. Pearce, and the mouth splints, which total $1,413,508.75. The undisputed past medical expenses total $96,926.27. Accordingly, we amend the jury award to increase the award of medical expenses, both past and future, from $185,300.00 to $1,510,435.02. Id. at pp. 15-17, 13 So.3d 805-06 (footnotes omitted). In addressing the correctness vel non of the appellate court's manifest error review of the jury's award for future medical expenses, we begin with a discussion of future medical expenses and the appropriate application of the manifest error standard of appellate review vis-a-vis awards for future medicals.