Opinion ID: 2399207
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Denial of Plaintiffs Motion to Hold a Hearing In Limine to Preclude Defendants from Introducing Evidence of Informed Consent

Text: Finally, plaintiff asserts that the trial justice erred in failing to hold a hearing in limine before denying his motion to preclude defendants from introducing evidence of his informed consent to the surgery. He cites G.L.1956 § 9-19-32 for the proposition that defendants' attempt to introduce Owens's consent form must be considered by the court as a preliminary question of face. [14] He argues that defendant introduced the evidence of Owens's informed consent to the surgery as an affirmative defense. He insists that before introducing any evidence of informed consent, defendants had to establish, by way of expert' testimony, that plaintiffs injuries occurred despite the fact that defendants were not negligent. The defendants counter that the trial justice's decision relative to the admissibility of the consent form that plaintiff signed was proper and within his discretion, and that he did not err in failing to convene a hearing in limine before ruling on this issue. We agree with defendants on this issue. Contrary to plaintiffs assertion, defendants did not attempt to introduce the consent form as an affirmative defense to a claim that defendants failed to obtain plaintiffs informed consent to the operation. Rather, defendants sought to introduce Owens's consent form to show that he assumed the risk of suffering certain injuries as a result of undergoing this type of surgery and that he suffered the injuries in question not because of any malpractice but because such injuries occurred as part of the normal risks of undergoing this type of surgery. The cause of Owens's sciatic nerve and buttock injury was a highly disputed factual issue in this case. The plaintiff sought to present evidence that the cause of the injury was a hip roll placed under his left buttock during the surgery. The defendants sought to introduce evidence that the cause of this injury was a hematoma, which was an inherent risk of this type of surgery, and that plaintiff expressly assumed this risk, as evidenced by the consent form. Therefore, defendants' offering of the consent form into evidence was not to rebut an alleged lack of informed consent or reasonable disclosure of all known material risks,  the type of case addressed by the statute  but to show that the injury in question could and did occur not because of malpractice, as Owens contended, but because this was one of the assumed risks of this type of surgery even in the absence of any malpractice. Moreover, it was the plaintiffs burden to prove that his injuries occurred as a result of the defendants' negligence; it was not the defendants' burden to prove that the injuries occurred in the absence of any negligence. [15] Thus, because § 9-19-32 did not apply in this situation, we hold that the trial justice did not abuse his discretion in failing to conduct an in limine hearing before permitting the defendants to introduce into evidence the informed-consent form.