Court Opinion

ID: 9533225
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:29:36.203379+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:57.988991
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE BARRY, specially concurring: I concur in the result reached by the majority. The doctrine of stare decisis mandates an affirmance of the action taken by the trial court. The facts before us, however, compel me to go farther. In Walker v. Rumer (1978), 72 Ill. 2d 495, 502, 381 N.E.2d 689, 691-92, our supreme court recited the law of Illinois respecting the application of the res ipsa loquitur doctrine to medical malpractice suits. “Although ordinarily only ultimate facts, and not conclusions or inferences, are to be pleaded, we are of the opinion that in the pleading of a cause of action in medical malpractice cases under the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, reliance on the doctrine should be alleged. (See Edgar County Bank & Trust Co. v. Paris Hospital, Inc. (1974), 57 Ill. 2d 298, 303.” As observed by the majority, plaintiff’s counsel in the instant case failed to plead that res ipsa loquitur might be used as a substitute for expert testimony of the applicable standard of care and defendant’s breach thereof. As I see it, this was the fatal flaw in the plaintiff’s lawsuit. Had counsel exercised the precaution of including such notice in the pleadings, I would not hesitate to suggest a reversal of the trial court’s result herein. I find that contrary to the majority’s suggestion that Dr. Wolfe’s testimony failed to discuss the standard of care, the record is otherwise. Dr. Wolfe concluded that there was no deviation from the applicable standard of care here but equivocated several times throughout his testimony. For example the record contains the following colloquy: “PLAINTIFF’S COUNSEL: O.K., and so the standard of care would be that they do not locate it [the ureter], is that right? DR. WOLFE: That’s right.” I find such testimony singularly unpersuasive. It is entirely obvious to me that “where a physician accidentally severs a ureter of a patient during a hysterectomy and closes the wound without exercising some technique to determine the condition of the ureters, such is not an exercise of proper care by a surgeon performing such hysterectomy, and [that] a finding by the jury that such conduct constitutes malpractice” could be sustained without expert testimony being introduced by plaintiff against the defendant physician. (See Faulkner v. Pezeshki (1975), 44 Ohio App. 2d 186, 196, 337 N.E.2d 158, 166 (judgment for plaintiff affirmed on grounds that issue of negligence submitted to jury on res ipsa loquitur doctrine was proper).) Expert testimony is, by my view, unnecessary to sustain a cause of action in negligence when a functioning vital part of the human body is “lost” during surgery without any forewarning. Unlike Illinois, Ohio courts do not require pleading of res ipsa loquitur as a precondition to relying on the doctrine in malpractice suits. Because of the startling similarity of facts in the Faulkner case to those presently before us, the case gives me pause to seriously reconsider the justification for requiring notice of res ipsa loquitur in the pleadings in Illinois. Particularly incisive in the Faulkner opinion is the court’s discussion of one public policy basis for abandoning the Illinois rule of Walker and its progeny: “Locating an expert to testify for the plaintiff in a malpractice action is known to be a very difficult task, mainly because in most cases one doctor is reluctant and unwilling to testify against another doctor. Although doctors may complain privately to each other about the incompetence of other doctors, they are extremely reluctant to air the matter publicly.” (44 Ohio App. 2d 186,193-94, 337 N.E.2d 158,164.) This pragmatic analysis convinces me that any rationale for perpetuating the Illinois rule is probably outmoded and tenuous, at best. In sum, I find the granting of defendant’s motion for a directed verdict a miscarriage of justice, but nonetheless consonant with the law of this State. Since this court stands in no position to reverse decisions of the Illinois Supreme Court, I am constrained to cast my vote against this appellant despite my procedural preference as expressed above.