Court Opinion

ID: 9571911
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:36:11.443373+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:31:10.062930
License: Public Domain

*475MATTHEWS, Justice,
dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority opinion except to the extent that it affirms the superior court’s JNOV setting aside the jury’s award of $2,500 for future medical expenses.
There was evidence that Baptiste has an 18% permanent physiological disability and permanent low back and leg pain. A physician testified that much of this pain is the result of a lower lumbar neuro-foraminal encroachment which would probably get worse over time.1 A reasonable jury could conclude that Baptiste would seek pain alleviation treatment in the future as he had in the past. The cost of such treatment was inferable from the cost of past treatments which were before the jury.
Further, the discharge summary of the Nevada Pain and Rehabilitation Center, completed just a few weeks before trial, recommended future participation in a supervised therapeutic exercise program. It can be inferred from Baptiste’s testimony that he intended to follow the center’s recommendation. The cost of such a program can be inferred from bills in evidence showing the costs of past therapeutic exercise sessions. Such costs are encompassed within the term “future medical expenses” used in the special verdict.
Based on the foregoing, there was, in my view, sufficient evidence before the jury to justify its award of future medical expenses. I would therefore reinstate this aspect of the jury verdict. __

. Dr. Toeller testified: "The neuro-foraminal encroachment is permanent. Arthritis over the years will probably make that worse due to the combination of factors, the weight, the injury and the degenerative disease in the discs.”