Opinion ID: 2035675
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Medical Bills

Text: Plaintiff raises several issues with regards to defendant Dr. Aquino. He first contends that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to admit plaintiff's exhibits Nos. 1 and 6 as proof of damages against Dr. Aquino. Exhibit 1 is a bill from Memorial Medical Center for 23 days of hospitalization amounting to $19,625.98. Exhibit 6 is the bill of Dr. Rogers in the sum of $2,550. The trial judge apparently excluded the two bills because the plaintiff made no effort to separate which charges on the bills would necessarily have been incurred as the natural result of a necessary repair surgery for a herniated stomach, and which, if any, were incurred as the result of something chargeable to defendant Dr. Aquino's negligence. In excluding exhibit 1 the court stated: [O]n Plaintiff's Exhibit 1 there are literally hundreds of entries that the jury would have no basis, no ability to determine what would have happened if this man would never have gone to Litchfield, what of these expenses would have been incurred anyway.       There has to be people throughout who are qualified to break these down, but absent any evidence on which this jury can do it, is not those twelve people sitting over there. After the court denied admission of exhibit 1, plaintiff attempted to satisfy the court's foundational requirements by offering the testimony of Gregory Weller, vice president of finance at Memorial Medical Center. When questioned by the trial court as to whether or not Weller was going to break down the expenses set forth in exhibit 1, plaintiff's counsel replied in the negative and stated that he was only going to testify regarding the average cost of this type of procedure. Defense counsel objected to the offer of testimony arguing that it did not detail what parts of that surgery were going to be necessary anyway and what parts were not. The trial court agreed and refused the testimony of Weller as a witness stating: [T]he difficulty that I continue to have is that if you've got in Plaintiff's Exhibit 1, a very, very detailed breakdown of every package, if you will, that was utilized in this man's treatment, that is appears to be capable of being broken down and attributed to each type of surgery, and you never came forward with someone who would do that, and I'm not sure that the witness you're proposing today is intending to do that   .    [Y]ou don't have a situation where we are incapable of breaking it down. You have a situation that, to me, is very well-suited to breaking it down. You just haven't brought anybody in to do it. Plaintiff argues that the trial court erred both in not admitting the two exhibits and by denying the offer of proof. We do not agree. The admission of evidence is within the sound discretion of the trial court and a reviewing court will not reverse the trial court unless that discretion was clearly abused. ( People v. Enis (1990), 139 Ill.2d 264, 151 Ill.Dec. 493, 564 N.E.2d 1155.) Even relevant evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by such factors as prejudice, confusion, or potential to mislead the jury. We cannot say that the trial court clearly abused its discretion in this case. In proving damages, the burden is on the plaintiff to establish a reasonable basis for computing damages. The voluminous medical bills, however, did not establish a reasonable basis for computing damages. In fact, a reasonable court could have found that such an impressive bill could have confused or misled the jury as to the extent of damages caused by Dr. Aquino's alleged negligence. Similarly, Weller's offered testimony could not have aided in the reasonable apportionment of damages as he was incapable of determining what charge was for what service. We find that under this scenario, the trial court was within its discretion in denying the admission of the bills and the offered testimony.