Opinion ID: 59493
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Past medical expenses

Text: Captain D's challenges the jury's award of $1,581,884.41 to Foradori for past reasonable and necessary medical expenses incurred because of his quadriplegia. Captain D's argues that the district court committed reversible error by admitting Foradori's medical bills into evidence because they were inadmissible hearsay evidence under Fed.R.Evid. 801 and were not authenticated as required by Fed. R.Evid. 901. Accordingly, Captain D's asserts that it should have been granted a new trial on damages, or, alternatively, a remittitur of $1,556,840. We disagree. On the first day of the trial, plaintiff's counsel asked Foradori if he knew how much he had incurred in medical expenses because of his quadriplegia from the date of his injury, December 22 of 2000, to the date he compiled his medical bills before the commencement of the trial on October 3 of 2005. Captain D's counsel asked for a conference outside the jury's presence. In the conference, Captain D's counsel objected to Foradori's testimony regarding his medical bills on the grounds that he lacked sufficient knowledge of them and to the introduction of Foradori's medical bills on the grounds that they were hearsay and had not been authenticated. After further discussion, the district court overruled the objection on the grounds that under the Miss.Code Ann. § 41-91-19 Foradori was entitled to testify to the medical expenses he had incurred and to introduce the bills he had received as evidence of the expenses. However, the court informed Captain D's counsel that he would be given ample opportunity both to cross-examine Foradori regarding the expenses incurred and the bills introduced and to introduce evidence challenging the bills and Foradori's testimony. [47] When the trial resumed the next day, Foradori testified, without objection, that as a result of his quadriplegia he had incurred over $1,556,840 [48] in medical expenses for treatment and services at a number of medical institutions: North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, Mississippi; Regional Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee; Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia; Atlanta Psychiatric and Neurology Clinic in Atlanta, Georgia; Kings Daughters Nursing Home in Memphis, Tennessee. He further testified that he had bills for these expenses totaling $1,556,840 and identified a binder marked Plaintiff's Exhibit P12 as containing those bills. Based on Foradori's testimony, plaintiff's counsel offered to introduce Exhibit P12 into evidence. The court asked if there was any objection, and Captain D's counsel said: No additional objection besides what we have discussed yesterday, Your Honor. The court then allowed Exhibit P12 to be entered into evidence. Captain D's counsel did not cross-examine Foradori regarding his testimony about his medical expenses or medical bills. Nor did Captain D's introduce any contradictory evidence of its own contesting Foradori's testimony or the P12 medical bills. The Mississippi statute referred to by the district court, Miss.Code Ann. § 41-9-119, provides: Proof that medical, hospital, and doctor bills were paid or incurred because of any illness, disease, or injury shall be prima facie evidence that such bills so paid or incurred were necessary and reasonable. Miss.Code Ann. § 41-9-119. The Mississippi Supreme Court has interpreted the statute as simplifying the procedure for proving medical expenses as an element of a claim by (1) permitting a claimant, based on his or her testimony, to identify and introduce medical bills incurred because of the illness, disease, or injury sued upon; and (2) establishing the bills so identified and introduced as prima facie evidence and a rebuttable presumption [49] that the expenses were necessary and reasonable. For example, the court has explained: Before the enactment of section 41-9-119, the common law was that medical expenses, where claimed as an element of damage, required proof connecting the bills for such medical expenses with the injury or disease sued on, together with proof that the charges for the medical expenses claimed were reasonable. The purpose of [Miss.Code Ann. § 41-9-119] was to simplify the procedure for proving medical expenses where claimed as an element of damages. It permits a party to introduce bills for medical expenses which have been paid or incurred, upon the testimony of the party that the bills were incurred or paid because of the illness, disease or injury sued on and makes the bills prima facie evidence that the treatment was necessary and the charges therefor were reasonable. McCay v. Jones, 354 So.2d 1095, 1101 (Miss.1978) (internal citation omitted). When a party takes the witness stand and exhibits bills for examination by the court and testifies that said bills were incurred as a result of the injuries complained of, they become prima facie evidence that the bills so paid or incurred were necessary and reasonable. However, the opposing party may, if desired, rebut the necessity and reasonableness of the bills by proper evidence. The ultimate question is then for the jury to determine. Jackson v. Brumfield, 458 So.2d 736, 737 (Miss.1984). Although Mississippi codified its common law hearsay and authenticity principles as rules of evidence, see Miss. R. Evid. 801 & 901, Mississippi courts have continued to interpret § 41-9-119 as superseding the standard hearsay and authenticity bars or conditions to admissibility, making medical bills vouched for by victims' in-court testimony not only admissible but, in combination with that testimony, prima facie evidence and a presumption of proof of that part of a victim's damages case. See Harvey v. Wall, 649 So.2d 184, 189 (Miss.1995) (citing Jackson, 458 So.2d at 737); Biloxi Reg'l Med. Ctr., Inc. v. Estate of Ross, 546 So.2d 667, 671 (Miss.1989) (citing Jackson, 458 So.2d at 737); Alfa Mut. Ins. Co. v. Cascio, 909 So.2d 174, 177, 181 (Miss.App.Ct.2005); see also Tom R. Mason, The Little Rule that Never Was: Mississippi Rule of Evidence 301 Presumptions in Civil Actions and Proceedings, 70 Miss. L.J. 743, 800 (2000) (classifying Miss.Code Ann. § 41-9-119 as an ordinary presumption shifting the burden of production to the defendant). Thus, under Miss.Code Ann. § 41-9-119, when Foradori took the witness stand and exhibited his medical bills for examination by the court and testified that they were incurred as a result of the injuries complained of, they became prima facie evidence and triggered the presumption that the bills so paid or incurred were necessary and reasonable. However, Captain D's could have, if it so desired, rebutted the necessity and reasonableness of the bills by proper evidence. Had Captain D's done so, the ultimate question would then have been for the jury to determine. In this case, however, Captain D's elected not to cross examine Foradori or to introduce any rebuttal evidence. Because Miss.Code Ann. § 41-9-119, via Federal Rule of Evidence 302, applies in this case, the district court properly admitted Foradori's medical bills, and Captain D's objection and argument to the contrary, based on Federal Rules of Evidence 803 and 901, is not well founded. Rule 302 provides that when state law supplies the rule of decision for a claim, as in this diversity case, that same state law also determines the effect of any presumption respecting a fact which is an element of the claim. Fed.R.Evid. 302; C. Mueller & L. Kirkpatrick, 1 Federal Evidence § 3:14 (Fed.R.Evid. 302 requires federal courts to give state presumptions the same effect state law would give them . . . .); see also Clayton v. Burston, 493 F.2d 429, 431 (5th Cir.1974) ([I]n a diversity tort case the applicability of any presumption, either of negligence or due care, is governed by state law.); Barron v. Ford Motor Co., 965 F.2d 195, 198-99 (7th Cir.1992) (noting that under Fed.R.Evid. 302, 501, and 601, the Federal Rules of Evidence apply state law with respect to presumptions, privilege, and competency of witnesses); 19 Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller, & Edward H. Cooper, Federal Practice & Procedure § 4512 (2d ed.2007) (same). Foradori's incurrence of $1,556,840 in past medical expenses as a result of his quadriplegia is a fact which is an element of his claim, to which the law of Mississippi supplies the rule of decision. Hence, Fed. R.Evid. 302 provides that Mississippi law, not federal law, determines the effects of any state-law presumption respecting that fact. Thus, the effects of the rebuttable presumption and prima facie evidence authorized by Miss.Code Ann. § 41-9-119 are governed by Mississippi law in this diversity case rather than by Fed.R.Evid. 803 and 901. See Fed.R.Evid. 302; 21b Charles A. Wright & Kenneth W. Graham, Jr., Federal Practice and Procedure § 5136 (2d ed.2007). Therefore, we conclude that the district court's ruling that Foradori was entitled to introduce his medical bills through his testimony, thereby establishing them as prima facie evidence and a presumption of reasonable and necessary medical expenses, was proper. Captain D's failed to avail itself of its right under the statute to cross-examine Foradori and to introduce rebuttal evidence challenging his past medical expenses evidence introduced in connection with plaintiff's exhibit P12. Accordingly, we find no error in the district court's admission of the evidence, or abuse of discretion in its denial of a new trial or a remittitur, in respect to the jury's damage award of $1,556,840 in past medical expenses.