Court Opinion

ID: 9629099
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:37:05.13432+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:35.305987
License: Public Domain

ERICKSON, Chief Justice,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. In my view, reversible error occurred which requires that the defendant, A.H. Robins (Robins) be granted a new trial. Because of errors in the admission of evidence and the district court’s instructions to the jury, the jury’s verdict should be set aside and the case remanded to the district court for a new trial. The district court also permitted evidence to be introduced at trial, which in my view, had limited probative value which was greatly outweighed by its prejudicial effect. The cumulative prejudicial effect of the errors which occurred prevented the defendant from receiving a fair trial. See People v. Botham, 629 P.2d 589 (Colo. 1981).
I.

Evidentiary Issues

Robins appealed from rulings on a number of evidentiary issues, asserting that prejudicial hearsay and irrelevant evidence was admitted at trial and that the cumulative effect of the trial court’s rulings was to allow highly inflammatory and prejudicial information to color the jury’s deliberations on both the liability and damages issues. I disagree with the majority’s analysis of the evidentiary issues.1 In my view, prejudicial evidence was admitted which prevented Robins from receiving a fair trial.
A. Adverse Reaction Reports
Robins, like most pharmaceutical concerns, maintains a system for continuously monitoring feedback from physicians and consumers about the use of its products. Most drugs and prescription medical devices have unavoidable side effects. In spite of tests made by a pharmaceutical firm before a product is marketed, many side effects are unknown before the product is sold to the public and the full panoply of problems tied to the use of a drug or product is only discovered after widespread use. Since no pre-marketing testing program is absolutely accurate, reports from physicians and consumers are especially important in providing a pharmaceutical company with information on the dangers and benefits of its products.
Robins employed a doctor to review complaints, comments, and reports which it received on the Daikon Shield. Most of the information involved so-called “adverse reactions” to the product — unplanned pregnancies, perforations, infections, and the like. A great majority of the reports involved medical problems different from those which Palmer experienced.
A manufacturer of a product has a duty to warn possible consumers of dangers which are not obvious. Labels which reasonably inform consumers of the dangers are adequate to comply with the duty to *222warn. Admittedly, a failure to warn can give rise to a claim for negligence. Bailey v. Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc., 635 P.2d 899 (Colo.App.1981); see also Howard v. Avon Products, Inc., 155 Colo. 444, 395 P.2d 1007 (1964); Restatement (Second) of Torts § 399 (1965).
A failure to provide adequate warning may also result in a strict liability claim. We have held that products unaccompanied by sufficient warnings or instructions for use may be found defective and unreasonably dangerous. Anderson v. Heron Eng. Co., Inc., 198 Colo. 391, 604 P.2d 674 (1979); Union Supply v. Pust, 196 Colo. 162, 583 P.2d 276 (1978); Hiigel v. General Motors Corp., 190 Colo. 57, 544 P.2d 983 (1975); Potthoff v. Alms, 41 Colo.App. 51, 583 P.2d 309 (1978); Restatement (Second) of Torts § 402A, comment j (1965). Warnings for prescription drugs are sufficient if addressed to physicians and pharmacists and not to the ultimate consumer. Hamilton v. Hardy, 37 Colo.App. 375, 549 P.2d 1099 (1976).
In this case, Palmer proceeded on theories of negligence and strict liability. As a part of her case, Palmer submitted evidence that would tend to show that Robins knew of the dangerous propensities of the Daikon Shield, but that it chose, nevertheless, not to inform the medical profession and users of the Daikon Shield of those dangers. The evidence consisted in part of the adverse reaction reports which were admitted over Robins’ objection.
Objectionable hearsay evidence consists of out-of-court statements offered for the purpose of proving the truth of the matter asserted. Id. See also Empire Diesel, Inc. v. Brown, 146 Colo. 477, 361 P.2d 964 (1961); C.R.E. 801. Hearsay evidence may, however, be admitted to prove notice since it is irrelevant whether the information as to notice is truthful or not. Notice evidence was offered to establish that Robins failed to comply with its duty to provide warnings of dangerous conditions connected with its product, as well as conditions which have not been proved to be linked to the product but which were reported. Cf. Hamilton v. Hardy, 37 Colo.App. 375, 549 P.2d 1099 (1976).
The majority concludes that, although the adverse reaction reports included references to consequences unrelated to the injuries suffered by Palmer, the “nature of those other reported incidents did not impair the legal relevancy of the evidence.” I disagree.
Palmer suffered a septic abortion. The adverse reaction reports included claims and reports of uterine perforation, ectopic pregnancy, difficult insertion or removal, expulsion, and pelvic inflammatory disease. Evidence of prior dissimilar events is inadmissible to prove liability. Blackburn v. Tombling, 148 Colo. 161, 365 P.2d 243 (1961); Millenson v. Department of Highways, 41 Colo.App. 460, 590 P.2d 979 (1978). Unless the prior tortious conduct is similar, the probative value of the unrelated acts is outweighed by considerations of unfair prejudice to the defendant, undue consumption of time, and distraction of the jury’s attention from the issue of the defendant’s responsibility for the plaintiff’s injuries. See McCormick’s Handbook on the Law of Evidence, § 200 (E. Cleary 2d ed. 1972); see also Uitts v. General Motors Corp., 411 F.Supp. 1380 (E.D.Pa.1974); C.R.E. 403 (judge must weigh prejudicial effect of evidence against its probative value).
In this case, where the strict products liability issue focused on the defectiveness of the Daikon Shield, it was highly prejudicial to admit evidence of dissimilar events merely to establish notice. The evidence was particularly prejudicial in view of the fact that Robins admitted knowing of incidents involving undesirable side effects from the use of the Daikon Shield. The adverse reaction reports strike too broadly. The reports relate to a number of complaints and to different intrauterine devices. There is no comparison of whether the reports or data collected was unusual for intrauterine devices. Under Palmer’s theory of notice, prejudicial hearsay evidence is admissible merely because it purports to show that injuries occurred. *223When the evidence relates to dissimilar incidents, the potential for prejudice is obvious. Evidence offered to establish notice is susceptible of misleading the jury in cases where a defect in a product is alleged to have caused a particular injury and evidence of other type injuries only establishes that the product was unsatisfactory for a number of different reasons. It cannot be claimed that difficulty in inserting or removing the Daikon Shield or many of the other adverse reactions suffered by the users tended to prove that the Daikon Shield caused Palmer to suffer a septic abortion. Dissimilar incidents create a perception of dangerousness and prevent a manufacturer from receiving a fair trial on the liability issue. Given the dissimilarity of Palmer’s injuries to the problems reported in the adverse reaction reports and their highly prejudicial character, it was, in my opinion, an abuse of discretion for the trial court to admit the reports.
B. Robins’ Computer Records — Exhibit 559
Palmer introduced a computer print-out which listed data that Robins had compiled on septic abortions. The data was collected in 1975 as Robins faced an increasing number of lawsuits arising out of the sale and use of the Daikon Shield. Exhibit 559 was apparently a summary of reports that Robins received from doctors around the country on septic abortions occurring from the asserted use of a number of different IUDs.
The trial court admitted the print-out, cautioning that data relating to septic abortions occurring before plaintiff’s injuries was admissible on the issue of notice; and that the remaining data was admissible for use as “circumstantial evidence” relating to “whatever inferences the jury wishes to draw, if any, of the statistical nature of this report relative to causation.” The court warned, however, that the “jury should not consider as true the facts that came in these reports so far as causation is concerned.”
I disagree with the majority’s holding that the exhibit qualified for admission under both the business record exception and the general hearsay exception, and must conclude that the report was erroneously admitted except as to the issue of notice.2 Even if the document was relevant on the causation issue, admission of the evidence was precluded by the hearsay rule. If the Daikon Shield in fact had a higher incidence of septic abortions than other IUDs, the report may have had probative value as to causation but the prejudice to Robins and the assumption of unproven facts should have foreclosed admission of the evidence. One of Palmer’s expert witnesses even acknowledged that the print-out was meaningless unless accepted as true. While the report is of some value on the issue of notice, it cannot be helpful on the issue of causation without an adequate foundation which shows the statistical accuracy and reliability of the data.
The probative value of the post-injury print-out data is far outweighed by the prejudicial effect on the jury. The relevance of the exhibit on the causation issue depends entirely on the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the hearsay document. The statistical data is highly prejudicial and the record discloses nothing about how it was collected. Many of the patients’ names are unreported and the date of injury is not reported in all cases. The permissible inferences from the evidence on causation are attenuated and prejudicial. In my view, the computer print-out should not have been admitted at trial except on the issue of notice as to those injuries reported before Palmer’s injury and should not have been admitted without more definitive instructions on its limited relevance.
C. Dr. Christian’s Article — Exhibit 56
The trial court admitted a medical journal article written by a Tucson, Arizona physician which questioned the safety of *224IUDs. See Christian, Maternal Deaths Associated with an Intrauterine Device, 119 Am.J. Obstetrics & Gynecology 441 (1974). The article contained a number of case studies where women became seriously ill or died after becoming pregnant while wearing an IUD. The article mentioned the Daikon Shield specifically as one of the IUDs involved in several of the case studies.
The majority finds that, although the trial court should have admitted the exhibit only for the limited purpose of serving as a foundation for Dr. Christian’s expert opinion, the admission of the article without a limiting instruction was not reversible error. I do not agree.
The article was published nearly eight months after Palmer’s incident. It raises questions about septic midtrimester abortions, but does not reach any conclusions. The article only calls for more study and an investigation. The reliability of the information contained in Dr. Christian’s article was never established and the record discloses that in at least one instance, the type of IUD worn by a patient was erroneously reported as a Daikon Shield. Moreover, the article takes on a highly prejudicial character because of its appearance in a prominent medical journal, despite its lack of extensive data and any real conclusions. Thus, the potential for jury confusion was exacerbated by the admission of obvious hearsay evidence that had little probative value. Because of the article’s tenuous reliability and its post-injury publication date, the article should not have been admitted into evidence.
II.

Sufficiency of Evidence on Negligence Claim

The majority finds that the ultimate determination of whether Robins’ conduct comported with that degree of care which a reasonably prudent drug manufacturer would use under the same or similar circumstances was well within the province of persons of ordinary intelligence and, therefore, expert opinion evidence was not essential to Palmer’s claim in negligence. I disagree with the majority’s conclusion.
The trial court instructed the jury that Palmer was entitled to recover on a theory of negligence if Robins’ conduct was not that of a “reasonably prudent pharmaceutical company under the same or similar circumstances.” Specifically, Palmer contended that Robins unreasonably failed: (1) to warn consumers of dangers and risks associated with the use of the Daikon Shield; (2) to investigate reports of adverse reactions to the Daikon Shield; (3) to test the Daikon Shield before marketing the product; (4) to control the marketing and promotion campaign and thereby created an unreasonable risk of injury to potential users of the Daikon Shield.
To recover in negligence, a plaintiff must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant breached a legal duty owing to the plaintiff, proximately causing damages. Independent Lumber Co. v. Leatherwood, 102 Colo. 460, 79 P.2d 1052 (1938). Courts must determine as a matter of law the existence of a duty and the applicable general standard of conduct. See W. Prosser, Handbook on the Law of Torts 205 (4th ed. 1971). It is the role of juries, however, to apply the facts of a particular case to legal standards set forth in the jury instructions. If the standard of care to which a reasonable person should conform is outside the common knowledge and experience of a lay jury, e.g., medical standards of care, then expert witnesses may be called for purposes of establishing the standard of care. Hamilton v. Hardy, 37 Colo.App. 375, 549 P.2d 1099 (1976). See also Seaman Unified School District v. Casson Construction Co., Inc., 3 Kan. App.2d 289, 594 P.2d 241 (1979) (standard for architects).
In my view, the average lay jury is not capable of determining without expert guidance the conduct required of a reasonably prudent pharmaceutical company. Most manufacturers and distributors of pharmaceutical products which sell unavoidably unsafe drugs or devices engage in *225continuous supervision and control of their products. Many products do not manifest adverse side effects until years after their manufacture. E.g., Beshada v. Johns-Manville Products Corp., 90 N.J. 191, 447 A.2d 539 (1982) (concerning asbestos related injuries). The testing and marketing of drug products occurs in a heavily regulated atmosphere (both state and federal) and involves differing monitoring considerations for different kinds of products. An average lay jury would not have the skill or expertise to determine a base line of reasonable conduct for a pharmaceutical concern to which the conduct in a particular case could be compared. Accordingly, the plaintiff should have been required to establish, as part of her case, the appropriate standard of care for a reasonable pharmaceutical concern. The standard of care for a manufacturer of pharmaceutical products, while established by expert testimony, is ultimately still a question of law for the courts to review. W. Prosser, supra.
III.

Issues Relating to Punitive Damages

In my view, the majority has properly stated the law on many of the issues relating to punitive damages. I am in accord, for example, with the majority’s finding that, under certain circumstances, punitive damages are recoverable in connection with a strict liability claim founded on section 402A of Restatement (Second) of Torts. I disagree, however, with the majority’s af-firmance of a jury award of $6,200,000 as punitive damages and the conclusion that the award was not a product of passion and prejudice and, therefore, excessive as a matter of law. I am also convinced that the excessive verdict derives, at least in part, from the district court’s inadequate instruction on the factors which may properly be considered in determining a proper standard for assessing a monetary award of punitive damages.
The defendant’s financial condition is a proper factor to consider in determining whether punitive damages should be awarded. Leidholt v. District Court, 619 P.2d 768 (Colo.1980); McAllister v. McAl-lister, 72 Colo. 28, 209 P. 788 (1922); Cour-voisier v. Raymond, 23 Colo. 113, 47 P. 284 (1896); Miller v. Carnation Co., 39 Colo. App. 1, 564 P.2d 127 (1977).
Evidence of financial worth, however, upon which a jury bases a punitive damages award, must be representative of the true financial condition of the defendant. The goal of admitting evidence of financial worth is to present as accurate a picture of financial worth as possible. Financial evidence should not mislead or permit a jury to reach a false conclusion based upon inaccurate or incomplete financial data. We have held that, irrespective of the defendant’s wealth, punitive damages must bear a reasonable relationship to compensatory damages and that no “fixed mathematical formula exists to determine reasonableness.” Miller v. Carnation Co., 39 Colo. App. 1, 564 P.2d 127 (1977). See also Mail-loux v. Bradley, 643 P.2d 797 (Colo.App. 1982). A trial court may consider the wealth of the defendant in determining the appropriate amount of punitive damages in a given case. Starkey v. Dameron, 92 Colo. 420, 21 P.2d 1112 (1933) (Butler, J., concurring). See also Vollert v. Summa Corp., 389 F.Supp. 1348 (D.Haw.1975).
The danger of jury confusion on the financial status of a corporate defendant is well illustrated in this case. The plaintiff sought to establish the net worth, sales, and profit figures of Robins for purposes of applying the punitive damages statute by introducing a series of corporate annual reports. The jury was also told that Robins’ gross profit (before tax) on Daikon Shield sales over the years it was marketed was nearly $12 million. That figure, however, only represented net sales and was not an accurate characterization of the profit figures for the Daikon Shield which were never introduced at trial. If the jury used the $12 million as a basis for its $6.2 million award of punitive damages, which seems reasonable in view of Palmer’s arguments which appear in the record and the trial court's acceptance of the figure in its denial of Robins’ motions for new trial and *226remittitur, then the award is badly skewed in favor of Palmer. A punitive damages award should not be the result of jury speculation. See Alley v. Gubser Development Co., 569 F.Supp. 36 (D.Colo.1983) (ratio of 10:1 held excessive).
Although it is difficult to set forth a hard and fast rule governing exactly what financial figures a jury should consider, it is grounds for remittitur or new trial for a jury to consider prejudicial information which is worthless, irrelevant, and misleading. The trial court must be diligent in screening evidence of financial worth so that the award furthers the purposes supporting punitive damages and does not add to jury confusion or prejudice. In my view, the massive amount of punitive damages awarded in this case is not supported by evidence of Robins’ financial condition admitted at trial and thus constitutes error. The inaccurate financial information produced and argued at trial provided no rational foundation for the jury’s award and was highly prejudicial to Robins.
The majority’s failure to consider the economic effect on Robins of multiple punitive damage awards in its review of the award in this case may prompt future awards in favor of other plaintiffs that will pyramid the punitive damages against Robins to a confiscatory level. See Wheeler, The Constitutional Case for Reforming Punitive Damages Procedures, 69 Va.L. Rev. 269, 270-73, 285-88 (1983).
The remedy of punitive damages, with deep roots in ancient law, and in medieval English statutes, first received explicit recognition in 1763 in Huckle v. Money, 2 Wils. 205 (K.B.1763). There, the jury was held justified in going beyond the “small injury done to the plaintiff” because of the desirability of taking account of “a most daring public attack made upon the liberty of the subject” through entry and imprisonment pursuant to “a nameless warrant.” Id. at 206. Later decisions which extended the remedy to situations where the defendant showed a conscious and deliberate disregard of the interests of others, still resembled those first cases in one important respect — a high probability that the number of plaintiffs will be few and that they will join, or can be forced to join, in a single trial. See Roginsky v. Richardson-Mer-rell, Inc., 378 F.2d 832 (2d Cir.1967).
The punitive damage remedy was transported to America, and by the middle of the nineteenth century, gained substantial acceptance in this country. See Owens, Punitive Damages in Products Liability Litigation, 74 Mich.L.Rev. 1258 (1976). The purpose behind the imposition of punitive damages was, and continues to be, to punish the defendant for the commission of an aggravated or outrageous act of misconduct and to deter him and others from such conduct in the future. Historically, the torts for which punitive damages were awarded were intentional torts involving a single victim. Roginsky, 378 F.2d 832.
Although the remedy of punitive damages is now firmly established by statute and as part of the common law, many critics have concluded that the concept is being abused. Any expansion, therefore, of its application to areas of the law which are only now developing and taking on a distinct character of their own, must be carefully scrutinized.
I have no quarrel with the majority’s acceptance of the concept of punitive damages in the field of products liability litigation. My problem lies more fundamentally with the majority’s application of the punitive damages doctrine here, where there exists the possibility that Robins may be financially overwhelmed by subsequent punitive damage awards comparable to the award in this case. The majority opinion justifies the use of the same evidence that was utilized in this case as evidence which can support additional awards in subsequent cases.
The unfair financial pyramiding of liability for punitive damage claims on the part of multiple plaintiffs throughout the United States is staggering. See Jackson v. Johns-Manville Sales Corp., 727 F.2d 506 (5th Cir.1984) (punitive damages are inappropriate in asbestos litigation). Admittedly, I have difficulty in perceiving how *227claims for punitive damages in such a multiplicity of actions throughout the nation can be administered in such a way as to avoid overkill and unwarranted cumulative financial punishment. See Roginsky, 378 F.2d 832. One solution is the so-called “one-bite/first comer” proposal which would limit recovery of punitive damages to the first litigant. See generally State ex rel. Young v. Crookham, 290 Or. 61, 618 P.2d 1268 (1980). A second alternative would allow for the introduction of evidence by the defendant of prior awards of punitive damages or of criminal sanctions. A third proposal would require that all related cases be assembled before a single court. Such a consolidation of claims would make it possible for a jury to make one punitive damage award which could then be held in trust for appropriate distribution among all successful plaintiffs. See Roginsky, 378 F.2d 832; see also S.44, 98th Cong., 1st Sess. (1983) (Product Liability Act) (stating that triers of fact, in determining the amount of a punitive damage award in a products liability setting, “shall” consider as one factor, among many, “all resolved and pending claims against the manufacturer or product seller with respect to the product ... ”).
None of these proposals, however, offers a complete answer to this pressing concern; yet, each recognizes expressly the need for drastic judicial or legislative control of the amount of punitive awards in order to keep the cumulative prospective total within some manageable balance. See also Jackson, 727 F.2d 506.
In my mind, the majority’s failure to address and limit the award of punitive damages raises the specter of unnecessarily excessive punitive damage awards in a cumulative tort setting in subsequent cases. “The anticipation of multiple litigation for compensation damages serves in this instance as an effective deterrant to future illicit conduct.” Jackson, 727 F.2d at 526. An examination of the economic effect on Robins of multiple punitive damage awards was warranted and would have been appropriate in this case.
IV.
I am convinced that the cumulative prejudicial effect of the above-stated admissions of evidence along with the erroneous jury instructions prevented the defendant from receiving a fair trial. I would set aside the jury’s verdict in this case and remand to the district court for a new trial. People v. Botham, 629 P.2d 589 (Colo.1981).

. I agree with the majority’s conclusion that those challenged portions of Dr. Preston’s memorandum (Exhibit HHH) were inadmissible hearsay.

. Many of the reports consisted of accidents reported to Robins before Palmer’s septic abortion.