Court Opinion

ID: 9743982
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:51:33.700472+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:25:23.603089
License: Public Domain

PRESIDING JUSTICE GOLDENHERSH, dissenting: I respectfully dissent. In my judgment there was no improper limitation by the trial court upon defendant’s ability to cross-examine plaintiff, Jeffrey K. Wilson, on his alleged prior injury and resultant lawsuit. The trial court consistently held to the position that the front of the knee was not the same place as the back of the knee and therefore defendant would have to establish some form of connection above and beyond both injuries being to the knee. I believe that the existent authority in this State shows the trial judge to be correct. In Marut v. Costello (1966), 34 Ill. 2d 125, 214 N.E.2d 768, affirming Marut v. Costello (1964), 53 Ill. App. 2d 340, 202 N.E.2d 853, the supreme court and the First District Appellate Court both held that allowing cross-examination was reversible error in a situation where the prior injury occurred to the upper back and resulted in operations upon the cervical spine and the subject injury of the instant suit was one involving operations on the lower back or lumbar area. Marut is “on all fours” with the instant case in which the trial judge appropriately continued to stress the difference between the anterior of a knee and the posterior of a knee and demanded some connection before allowing cross-examination. The authorities cited by the majority are not so nearly in point as Marut and do not resolve the problems of either a lack of connection between the two injuries or a lack of injury to the same area. In Leahy v. Illinois Power Co. (1981), 103 Ill. App. 3d 487, 431 N.E.2d 390, the plaintiff disputed the reference to the prior lawsuit rather than the question of prior injury to the same area of the plaintiff’s back. In Chavez v. Watts (1987), 161 Ill. App. 3d 664, 515 N.E.2d 146, the court stated that the defendant must establish some connection between the prior incident and the instant injury, basically that the prior incident occurred and that the previous injury was of a similar nature to the one at issue. In Chavez, as in Leahy, the injury seemed to be a general back injury or a general lower back injury, and the main conflict between the parties was on attribution of injury to the first or second incident rather than the location of the injury. In Saputo v. Fatla (1975), 25 Ill. App. 3d 775, 324 N.E.2d 34, the prior and instant injuries involved the lower back. The injury in Elberts v. Nussbaum Trucking, Inc. (1981), 97 Ill. App. 3d 381, 422 N.E.2d 1040, was admitted by plaintiff’s counsel in argument before the trial court to be in the same area of the back as the injury on trial. The case of Palsir v. McCorkle (1966), 70 Ill. App. 2d 425, 216 N.E.2d 682, involved prior problems and a present injury dealing with the plaintiff’s right side, the prior injury involving the plaintiff’s right flank, groin and his knees, and in the suit on trial involved the entire right side. In the case of O’Brien v. Thomas Steel Corp. (1989), 181 Ill. App. 3d 901, 538 N.E.2d 1162, relied upon by the majority, the prior and instant injuries both involved the L-5 spinal disk. In this case, the trial court properly observed that the claimed prior injury was to a different part of the body than the instant case and properly required connection between the two before allowing any cross-examination despite repeated attempts and requests to allow that cross-examination without the requisite connection. A review of the authorities cited by the majority shows that the trial court was correctly following case authority on this point. I therefore respectfully dissent from the majority’s opinion.