Court Opinion

ID: 9710035
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:00:19.384157+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:53.739640
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE WOODWARD, dissenting: One of the important issues in this case was the extent, if any, of the contributory negligence of the plaintiff as the plaintiff’s damages were reduced by one-third, or $16,000, by the jury’s verdict. One of the facts supporting the jury’s finding of contributory negligence on the plaintiff’s part would be voluntarily riding in the motor vehicle with a driver who was intoxicated or in a situation where there was evidence that would be sufficient to cause a reasonable person to know that the driver was intoxicated. To emphasize this issue, the defendant filed an affirmative defense alleging that the plaintiff was responsible for her injuries because she chose to remain in decedent’s car even though she was aware that he was intoxicated.. In support of the affirmative defense, the defendant introduced over the plaintiff’s objection a toxicology report showing that the decedent’s blood-alcohol level was .12 approximately two hours after the accident. The plaintiff contends that, in order to introduce this toxicology report in evidence, a foundation was required showing retrograde extrapolation or some other method of demonstrating decedent’s blood-alcohol level at the time of the accident. “Extrapolation” is defined as “[t]he process of estimating an unknown number outside the range of known numbers. Term sometimes used in cases when a court deduces a principle of law from another case.” (Black’s Law Dictionary 528 (5th ed. 1979).) “Retrograde” means “backward.” The majority opinion states: “Given that a reasonable length of time elapsed between the accident and when the sample was drawn and the sample registered above the statutorily imposed minimum .10 required to establish a presumption of intoxication, we hold that no extrapolation testimony was required before the test results could be admitted at trial.” (Emphasis added.) 213 Ill. App. 3d at 797. The above statement of the majority ignores the following language of this court in Cuellar v. Hout (1988), 168 Ill. App. 3d 416: “Contrary to plaintiff’s contention, the language quoted does not require that the test be ‘given “at the time” of the occurrence.’ Rather, the statute requires that the concentration of alcohol ‘at the time alleged’ be ‘shown by analysis of the person’s blood, urine, breath, or other bodily substance’ without reference to when the substance analyzed is taken from the person. [Citation.] It is, therefore, broad enough to allow the admission of evidence of the analysis of blood, urine, breath, or some other bodily substance at a time subsequent to the time alleged when that analysis can show, by use of retrograde extrapolation or some other method, the concentration of alcohol in the person’s blood or breath at the time alleged. We note that in virtually every case there will be some lapse of time between the time alleged and the performance of the analysis of the person’s blood, urine, breath, or other bodily substance so that in virtually every case a degree of extrapolation from the analysis will be required.” (Emphasis added.) 168 Ill. App. 3d at 421. The majority opinion, while agreeing that evidence of retrograde extrapolation is admissible, distinguishes Cuellar on the basis that, in that case, evidence of retrograde extrapolation was necessary because the blood-alcohol level of the driver was .064 approximately two hours after the accident, and evidence of retrograde extrapolation showed the blood-alcohol level to be .104 at the time of the accident, thus permitting a presumption of intoxication. In the present case, the opinion of the majority assumes that, since the test conducted on the decedent showed a blood-alcohol level of .12 two hours after the accident, his blood-alcohol level had to have been higher at the time of the accident. Further, the majority assumes that the blood-alcohol level would not be lower at anytime within the period of two hours prior to the administering of the test. I believe that Cuellar requires evidence of retrograde extrapolation when the test to determine the blood-alcohol level is administered, as it was in this case, two hours subsequent to the accident. Cuellar makes it clear that the relevant time of a person’s blood-alcohol level is at the time of the accident, not sometime in the future. It is clear from Cuellar that the reason virtually every case will require a degree of extrapolation is because in virtually every case there will be a lapse of time between the accident and the testing of the blood-alcohol level. In Cuellar, the plaintiff was involved in an accident while driving a motorcycle, and the defendant asserted that he was intoxicated at the time of the accident. The defendant presented as a witness a pharmacologist, pharmacist and nutritionist who testified that, based on retrograde extrapolation, the blood-alcohol level of the plaintiff at the time of the accident was .12, although the test taken two hours after the accident showed .064. The plaintiff, on the other hand, presented a witness who was a pathologist who stated that a single measurement of blood-alcohol level could not be relied upon because without further evidence it could not be determined if the person tested is in the absorption phase or in the elimination phase; and that this determination is dependent upon the type of beverage consumed and the type of food consumed, which was all pertinent information to the validity of the retrograde extrapolation testimony. The majority also ignores the fact that its argument distinguishing Cuellar was, in fact, raised in that case and rejected. The Cuellar court stated: “Plaintiff attempts to distinguish [People v. Johnigk (1982), 111 Ill. App. 3d 941 (retrograde extrapolation testimony allowed),] on the basis that the actual blood-alcohol level found was in excess of .10 in Johnigk and was less than .10 in the case at bar. [Citation.] This distinction is irrelevant since (1) it is not the blood-alcohol level at the time of the test, but rather that at the time alleged, that is significant and (2) the distinction does not concern in any way the admissibility of testimony extrapolating from the actual test results to an earlier time.” (Emphasis added.) 168 Ill. App. 3d at 421-22. In view of the publicity and general knowledge of jurors as operators of motor vehicles that a blood-alcohol level of .10 or above presumes intoxication, the admission of the toxicology report in this case without a prior scientific analysis unduly emphasized the issue of the decedent’s intoxication when the real issue as to plaintiff’s contributory negligence involved her opportunity to be aware of decedent’s condition while riding in his motor vehicle. I conclude that it was error to admit the evidence of the blood-alcohol level of the decedent two hours after the accident without evidence of retrograde extrapolation or some other method of determining what the decedent’s blood-alcohol level was at the time of the accident. I further conclude that this error requires that plaintiff receive a new trial. It is impossible to determine how much weight the jury gave to the toxicology report of decedent’s blood-alcohol level when it determined the degree of plaintiff’s contributory negligence. It, therefore, cannot be said that the jury would have found the plaintiff to be 33x/3% negligent without the evidence of decedent’s blood-alcohol level. I would reverse and remand this cause for a new trial.