Opinion ID: 1458154
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence of Western's Reinsurance

Text: The defendants argue that the district court erred when it granted plaintiffs in limine request under the collateral source rule to exclude evidence of Western's reinsurance. After Western expended $744,000 on litigation costs and settled the Jones lawsuit against Kadlec for $7.5 million, it received payment for a portion of its expenditures from its reinsurers. The defendants sought unsuccessfully to introduce this reinsurance information to the jury. We review the district court's evidentiary ruling for an abuse of discretion. [34] As adopted by the Louisiana Supreme Court, the collateral source rule is a rule of evidence and damages. The rule provides that payments made to or benefits conferred upon an injured party from sources other than the tortfeasor, notwithstanding that such payments or benefits cover all or a part of the harm for which the tortfeasor is liable, are not credited against the tortfeasor's liability. [35] The policy driving the rule is the belief that a tortfeasor should not benefit because a plaintiff had the foresight to obtain insurance. [36] Here, although the plaintiffs incurred damages in excess of $8 million as a result of defendants' torts (and Dr. Berry's and Kadlec's own tortious behavior, which the jury considered), defendants wanted to introduce evidence of Western's reinsurance to show plaintiffs' real injury. But this is nothing more than a classic argument against the collateral source rule, and it would effectively penalize Western for having the foresight to obtain reinsurance. While there are exceptions to the collateral source rule that allow a party to introduce evidence of reinsurance, [37] they are inapplicable here.