Court Opinion

ID: 9517646
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 00:25:18.517785+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:04:33.622111
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE JONES, dissenting: I respectfully dissent. The majority finds an inconsistency in the verdict returned by the jury in this case because the jury awarded the plaintiff an amount for pain medication but did not award the plaintiff any damages for pain and suffering. The majority states that it finds no case that sanctions the inconsistency in awarding damages for pain medication but no damages for the pain itself. There are, in fact, many cases that sanction an award of damages for pain medication and treatment but no award of damages for pain and suffering. Those cases are fully viable on the point although they do not discuss the apparent digression in terms of an “inherent inconsistency.” One need not look far to find cases of such sanction. The majority opinion itself cites four of them: Williams v. McCallister (1978), 60 Ill. App. 3d 635, 376 N.E.2d 1093 (where the instruction to the jury directed them to allow damages for pain and suffering, but they did not, despite ample testimony by plaintiff regarding such), Ford v. Baker (1978), 61 Ill. App. 3d 45, 377 N.E.2d 853, Bledsoe v. Amiel (1978), 57 Ill. App. 3d 54, 372 N.E.2d 1033, and Giddings v. Wyman (1961), 32 Ill. App. 2d 220, 177 N.E.2d 641. Other cases of a similar nature could be cited. Pain and suffering attend practically every claim for damages for personal injury, and it is certain that the jury is instructed in every case that they are a proper element of damages to be awarded. In every instance where a jury sees fit to award damages in the amount of the special damages proved, it could be argued that the verdict was “inherently inconsistent,” but the cases do not support such a conclusion. Rather, the explanation for such a jury verdict is generally found in the evidence. As recently stated by this court in Beckmeyer v. Alcala (1985), 135 Ill. App. 3d 166, 173-74, 481 N.E.2d 893, 897: “Contrary to what plaintiffs argue, they are not entitled, as a matter of right, to automatic compensation for the amount of special damages or out-of-pocket expenses claimed. As stated in Haleem, special damages often may be a useful measure, but they need not be an incontestable basis for the determination of a proper award. Mathematical computations represent only a part of the total evidence. ‘There are other evidentiary matters to be considered. The testimony surrounding the claimed injuries may have been impeached or it may be contradictory or unreliable. There may be evidence which carries an implication that the injuries have been exaggerated or even feigned or that the medical treatment was either unnecessary or prolonged. There may be evidence which makes doubtful the necessity of the time alleged to have been missed from work. All of these and like factors must be weighed. And if there appears to be evidence suggesting a genuine conflict as to the legitimacy of the expenses incurred, then the verdict of the jury should not be disturbed on review. The jury has the function of determining the credibility of witnesses and the weight to be given their testimony. It is usually instructed to consider all of the evidence in the light of its own experience in the affairs of life. This prerogative should not be withdrawn from the jury if there is any evidence tending to support its conclusion as to the amount of damages actually sustained. Thus this court has said that it will affirm verdicts, however low, which are sustained by evidence or the absence of particular evidence. Daly v. Vinci, 51 Ill. App. 2d 372, at 386, 201 N.E.2d 200, at 207 (1964). In Jeffrey v. Chicago Transit Authority, 37 Ill. App. 2d 327, 185 N.E.2d 384 (1962), a rear-end collision case, we affirmed a verdict of no damages where the plaintiffs’ testimony was impeached and self-contradictory and the testimony of the treating physician could have been deemed unworthy of belief.’ Haleem v. Onate (1966), 71 Ill. App. 2d 457, 461, 219 N.E.2d 94, 96.” It seems obvious to me that the plaintiff’s evidence regarding her injury and her pain was questionable to the point of disbelief and that the jury so found when it returned this conservative but wholly justified verdict. The case of Wottowa Insurance Agency, Inc. v. Bock (1984), 104 Ill. 2d 311, 472 N.E.2d 411, relied upon by the majority, involved two inconsistent verdicts rendered upon two separate counts of a complaint, and, accordingly, it cannot serve as a precedent for the single verdict in this case which the majority has found, I believe erroneously, to be “inherently inconsistent.”