Court Opinion

ID: 9744439
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 22:03:13.100215+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:49.255222
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE McMORROW, dissenting: In his guilty plea, Talarico unconditionally conceded that he had the requisite mens rea to commit the violent offenses charged. In essence, when he pied guilty to the reduced criminal charges, Talarico admitted that he intentionally and knowingly, without legal justification, pushed a 15-year-old boy to the ground and shocked him with a stun gun, and a week later, again without legal justification, shocked a 25-year-old man with a stun gun, grabbed his genitals, and kissed him several times on the face. When he pied guilty to the reduced charges, he deliberately and knowingly forfeited the opportunity to assert that his violent conduct was actually caused by a third party’s negligence in prescribing an acne medication. In the instant medical malpractice action, however, Talarico repudiates his admission of criminal intent and seeks compensatory damages arising out of his own criminal conduct. Talarico should not be allowed to use the judicial system to have it both ways. In my opinion, the decision of the majority invites the rancor of the community toward the legal profession and justice system. I believe that under the facts of this case, there is no legal justification for subjecting Dr. Dunlap and Dixie-Ashland to the expense and stress of trial,- nor is there any justification for subjecting the taxpayers to the expense incurred by the use of the courts and resources of the state to litigate an issue which had previously been litigated. In my view, today’s majority opinion sets an unfortunate precedent that is contrary to sound public policy, legal principles, and fairness. Through a flawed application of the doctrine of collateral estoppel, the majority permits Talarico to maintain contrary legal positions in two different lawsuits, thereby compromising the finality of the judgment, the integrity of the guilty plea, judicial economy, and fairness to the defendants in this case. Accordingly, I dissent. As the parties concede, the majority acknowledges, and as the circuit court and appellate panel held, the elements of collateral estoppel are present in this case. The majority opinion expressly acknowledges that the "mens rea element supporting Talarico’s battery conviction and the proximate cause element in the malpractice suit are the same issue.” 177 Ill. 2d at 193. Why, then, should Talarico be allowed to proceed with his claim that the proximate cause of his violent attack on the victims was Dr. Dunlap’s negligent prescription and monitoring of Accutane? The majority’s answer to this question relies entirely upon a strained application of the principle that collateral estoppel does not preclude relitigation of an issue if the party against whom the doctrine is asserted lacked sufficient incentive to litigate the particular issue in the first lawsuit. According to the majority, the incentive to litigate concept, as interpreted in the Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 28 (1982), permits relitigation of an issue " 'if the party can show that the original litigation was a side show rather than a struggle to the finish.’ ” 177 Ill. 2d at 196, quoting G. Hazard, Revisiting the Second Restatement of Judgments: Issue Preclusion and Related Problems, 66 Cornell L. Rev. 564, 584 (1981). I do not believe that the admissions defendant made while represented by his attorneys in his negotiated plea should be viewed as a "side show”; the stakes for the people of this state, as well as the defendant, are too high in a criminal prosecution to assume that plea negotiations are anything less than a "struggle to the finish.” Rather, such negotiations are a joint effort by the court, the prosecutor, and defense attorney to thoughtfully and knowingly resolve complex guilt and sentence issues fairly. Since Talarico cannot show that the original criminal litigation was a side show, his current attempt to relitigate the issue of his criminal intent falls outside the scope of the incentive to litigate exception to collateral estoppel. According to the majority, however, Talarico may proceed with his claim against Dr. Dunlap because "only in the most technical sense was Talarico’s guilty plea an admission that his criminal conduct was knowing and intentional.” 177 Ill. 2d at 196. The majority reasons that the negotiated plea was a compromise in which Talarico never conceded that Accutane was not the contributing cause of his criminal conduct. I question the precise sense in which Talarico’s unequivocal admission of his engagement in intentional and knowing criminal conduct can be deemed a mere technicality. On the contrary, such an admission goes to the heart of the issue of Talarico’s criminal responsibility. With respect to the majority’s characterization of Talarico’s guilty plea as a "compromise,” such observation is singularly unhelpful because in this context compromise is an essential component of negotiations. That Talarico made a calculated assessment of the risks of asserting the Accutane defense does not mean he lacked incentive to litigate the issue. Significantly, the fact that Talarico did not expressly concede in his guilty plea that Accutane did not cause his violent behavior is legally irrelevant because such a concession is implicit in his admission of intentional criminal conduct. Although there may be instances in which a person’s guilty plea in a criminal matter does not preclude that party from pursuing a civil claim which partly depends on facts admitted in the guilty plea, this is not such a case. At the time of his negotiated guilty plea, Talarico and his criminal defense attorneys were well aware that he had been under treatment with Accutane. Indeed, the record reveals that months before Talarico began his own treatment with Accutane, he had spent 100 to 200 hours researching the effects of Accutane while participating in a research project on that topic at his medical school. Accordingly, at the time of his guilty plea, Talarico possessed significant information from which to evaluate the merits of an Accutane-impairment defense. If Talarico proved his theory that negligently prescribed Accutane caused his criminal acts, thereby negating his criminal intent, he would have been entitled to outright acquittal. However, Talarico instead chose to plead guilty to reduced charges, and benefit from a sentence that included psychiatric treatment and probation. Having made that decision, Talarico should not now be permitted to pursue a lawsuit that places the blame on others and thereby repudiate his admittedly intentional criminal acts. The instant case is virtually indistinguishable from Bulfin v. Eli Lilly & Co., 244 Ill. App. 3d 785 (1993), where the appellate court rejected a similar attempt by a plaintiff who, after pleading guilty to criminal charges, subsequently sought damages in a civil lawsuit based on the allegation that certain medications manufactured by defendant had induced an intoxicated state that caused him to commit criminal acts, through no fault of his own. The plaintiff in the civil suit in Bulfin, like plaintiff in the case at bar, knew at the time of his criminal proceedings that he might have a complete defense and be acquitted based on the use of the medications. In light of an offered plea negotiation, however, he forfeited the drug-induced impairment issue, and pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated assault. After reviewing the elements of collateral estoppel and the incentive to litigate exception, the appellate court in Bulfin held that the plaintiff had been afforded a full and fair opportunity in the criminal case to litigate the issue of whether his actions resulted from an involuntarily induced state of intoxication. Accordingly, the appellate court held that the civil suit was properly dismissed on the basis of collateral estoppel. The Bulfin court observed that the incentive to litigate a complete defense to criminal charges is present in every case in which a person potentially faces a prison term for such charges and that "[i]t would be an anomaly to suggest that, when plaintiff abandoned his defense, he did so out of a lack of incentive as opposed to a desire to substantially reduce his potential prison term.” Bulfin, 244 Ill. App. 3d at 791. Without distinguishing the facts in Bulfin or explaining where the appellate court’s analysis was flawed, the majority in the instant case expressly rejects the reasoning in Bulfin "as it relates to negotiated guilty pleas and the incentive to litigate.” 177 Ill. 2d at 195. In so doing, the majority overlooks the strong policy concerns which arise when a criminal defendant is allowed to plead guilty to intentional or knowing crimes, and then subsequently to deny his criminal guilt for purposes of pursuing, in civil litigation, financial compensation for the consequences of his own criminal conduct. Justice and equity cry out for the application of collateral estoppel to the facts of this case. Some of those concerns have been recognized by other jurisdictions. For example, in Cole v. Taylor, 301 N.W.2d 766, 768 (Iowa 1981), the Iowa court rejected on public policy grounds a convicted defendant’s subsequent claim in a civil suit that her psychiatrist’s negligent treatment caused her to commit the crime. In a similar vein, a New York court cautioned that courts should not be expected to look behind knowing and voluntary pleas of guilt to relieve defendants from adverse civil consequences that may follow from the defendants’ admissions of guilt to serious criminal charges. Merchants Mutual Insurance Co. v. Arzillo, 98 A.D.2d 495, 472 N.Y.S.2d 97 (1984). The court held, "As long as the guilty plea stands, the defendant is guilty and cannot be heard to say otherwise.” Merchants Mutual Insurance, 98 A.D.2d at 506, 472 N.Y.S.2d at 105. In Adkinson v. Rossi Arms Co., 659 P.2d 1236, 1239-40 (Alaska 1983), a defendant who had been convicted of manslaughter was then sued by the victim’s family for wrongful death. As a defense to the civil suit, he sought to implead the gun manufacturer on the ground that the gun was defective and had killed the victim when it discharged accidentally. The Alaska Supreme Court, in rejecting the defendant’s attempt to implead the gun manufacturer, observed, "[Allowing a criminal defendant who has been convicted of an intentional killing, to impose liability on others for the consequences of his own antisocial conduct runs counter to basic values underlying our criminal justice system.” Adkinson, 659 P.2d at 1240. The same public policy concerns enunciated in the above cases are present in the case at bar. Allowing Talarico to pursue the Accutane issue in his medical malpractice action in the case at bar creates an unwise precedent to impose on the courts of this state. Talarico waived the Accutane defense by his plea of guilt to intentional criminal conduct, and he should be bound by such admission as a matter of good law and sound policy. By declining to impose collateral estoppel under the circumstances of this case, the majority allows a defendant to circumvent the finality of his guilty plea and to seek financial gain from third parties for his own criminal acts. Finality of judgments in negotiated plea criminal cases serves an important purpose in our criminal justice system. Once an accused who is represented by counsel decides to plead guilty to criminal charges and accept the consequences of his own conduct, he should not be able to use the civil court system to make a mockery out of the criminal proceedings by repudiating his guilty plea for pecuniary gain. The compensation that Talarico seeks in his civil suit is not limited to medical expenses or physical suffering from the side effects of Accutane. He seeks to be compensated for lost income and profit and lost educational advantage, presumably arising from Talarico’s criminal conviction and the resulting impact it may have placed on his medical career. For these reasons, I find no principled basis on which to apply an exception to collateral estoppel in this case. The appellate court in Bulfin cited with approval the following: "The clearest case for such an estoppel is where a defendant pleads guilty to a substantial criminal charge and then seeks in civil litigation concerning the same transaction to assert that he did not commit the criminal act. Particularly galling is the situation where a criminal convicted on his own guilty plea seeks as plaintiff in a subsequent civil action to claim redress based on a repudiation of the confession. The effrontery or, as some might say it, chutzpah, is too much to take. There certainly should be an estoppel in such a case.” G. Hazard, Revisiting the Second Restatement of Judgements: Issue Preclusion and Related Problems, 66 Cornell L. Rev. 564, 578 (1981). I agree with the foregoing and adhere to the basic values underlying our criminal justice system articulated in the Adkinson case. I would hold Talarico to his admissions based on collateral estoppel, and affirm the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to the defendants. Accordingly, I dissent.