Court Opinion

ID: 9533647
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:33:33.483929+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:29:06.673781
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring).
Liability was absolute, only damages are to be reviewed. Plaintiff sued for $4,152.04 for hospital and doctor bills incurred. He sued, totally, for $19,000 in out-of-pocket expenses for purposes of receiving medical treatment and lost wages. Additionally, he sued for damages for pain and suffering plus permanent physical impairment. Concerning the latter, his pleading expressed “plaintiff reserves the right to specify his damages in this regard” because “at this time the level of impairment by plaintiff is unknown.”
Plaintiff bears the burden of proof. A party cannot claim a version of the facts more favorable to his position than he gave in his own testimony. Lalley v. Safway Steel Scaffolds, Inc., 364 N.W.2d 139, 141 (S.D.1985); Miller v. Stevens, 63 S.D. 10, 16, 256 N.W. 152, 155 (1934). By his own testimony, Plaintiff was unemployed at the time of the accident, never earned enough money to file a tax return, and made no attempts to obtain employment after the accident. Over and above the $4,152.04 encompassed within his $15,000 demand was payment for lost wages, as mentioned above. Obviously, the jury believed Plaintiff had not met his burden of proof. Nor did the trial judge, for he so expressed in a memorandum opinion dated December 10, 1987, which was incorporated in an order filed December 16, 1987.
Medical testimony, submitted by the Plaintiff, was essentially uncorroborated by several physicians. These physicians opined that Plaintiff's complaints were unsubstantiated by objective findings. Dr. Watson, by deposition, testified that he could find nothing wrong with him. These were his own witnesses. Dr. Benson’s testimony singularly backed Plaintiff’s com*316plaints with objective findings, but he, also, testified by videotape deposition that he could not delineate specifically when the disc was torn and could not form an opinion as to the cause of the problem which created a subluxing patella in the knee. Medical records and reports submitted by the Plaintiff were also unfavorable: (1) Dr. Billion found no evidence of any major abnormality; (2) Dr. Freeman, a neurologist, reflected that nerve conduction studies were completely normal; and (3) Dr. VanDemark could not provide any disability rating. Therefore, proximate cause was highly suspect, by Plaintiffs own witnesses and evidence. It was for the jury to decide which evidence is to be believed. State v. Shank, 88 S.D. 645, 650, 226 N.W.2d 384, 387 (1975).
There is no clear abuse of discretion by the trial court in determining that the jury verdict was not the product of passion and prejudice. We should not disturb the decision of this jury. Stene v. Hillgren, 77 S.D. 165, 88 N.W.2d 109 (1958). No injustice has been done here by the jury’s verdict, or the trial court’s decision. Mueller v. Mueller, 88 S.D. 446, 221 N.W.2d 39 (1974). There is simply no proof of special damages establishing $19,000 under the state of this record.