Armstrong ex rel. Armstrong v. Brookdale University Hospital & Medical Center

425 F.3d 126
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedSeptember 21, 2005
DocketDocket Nos. 02-780(L), 03-9289(CON)
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 425 F.3d 126 (Armstrong ex rel. Armstrong v. Brookdale University Hospital & Medical Center) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Armstrong ex rel. Armstrong v. Brookdale University Hospital & Medical Center, 425 F.3d 126 (2d Cir. 2005).

Opinion

POOLER, Circuit Judge:

Defendants-appellants, Dr. Leon Lewis and Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center (“Brookdale”), appeal a $1.35 million verdict in favor of plaintiff Chanel Armstrong (“Chanel”) entered in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Sterling Johnson, Jr., Judge).

Three verdict sheet errors and the confusion they generated caused the jury in this tort action to render a verdict in favor of plaintiff on one count — performing a medical procedure without informed consent-inconsistent with its answers to specific interrogatories and to fail to reach another count — battery—on which interrogatory answers suggested it may have found in plaintiffs favor. Concluding that the verdict sheet errors deprived both defendant and plaintiff of a fair trial, we vacate the judgment and remand for a new trial on the uninformed consent and battery claims. Because there was insufficient evidence to support the verdict against Brookdale, we reverse that portion of the judgment and remand for entry of judgment in Brookdale’s favor.

BACKGROUND

On April 1, 1995, Chanel, then eleven years old, looked out her bedroom window and saw something moving in a bag on a ledge of the building. Chanel called her sister, Tashawn, who climbed onto the roof and rescued an infant from the bag. Ta-shawn then called 911 and, following the operator’s directions, tied off the baby’s umbilical cord. Shortly thereafter, emergency medical service personnel and police came to the apartment where Chanel lived. They suggested that Chanel was the baby’s mother and that she had thrown it out the window. When Chanel’s mother, Carol Armstrong (“Carol”), arrived home, the officers repeated their accusations and insisted that Carol bring Chanel to a hospital for an examination, suggesting that the only alternative was Chanel’s detention.

Chanel and Carol claimed that at Brook-dale, where the officers took them, Dr. Lewis and Dr. Hani Takla, resident physicians, examined Chanel without her consent and over the physical and verbal protests of both mother and daughter. The extent of the examinations is not entirely clear from the testimony, but both doctors admittedly touched Chanel, and Dr. Lewis admitted that he touched her vulva and separated her labia. The purpose of both examinations was to ensure that Chanel had not recently given birth to a baby, and, together, they established that it was “highly unlikely” that Chanel had given birth.

In February 1998, Chanel settled a lawsuit against New York City, its police department, the New York City Housing Authority, the New York City Police Department, and several police officers for $260,000. She then sued Dr. Lewis; Dr. Takla; Dr. Mohammad Rahman, a pediatric emergency room attending physician; Darryl Coach, a Brookdale social worker; and Brookdale. Although Chanel made many claims, including alleged violations of Sections 1983 and 1985, which provided the jurisdictional basis for her suit, the only claims that remain relevant are (1) medical malpractice against Drs. Takla, Lewis, and Rahman; (2) violation of New York Public Health Law § 2805, which governs the circumstances under which a health provider can- be held liable for its failure to obtain informed consent before performing a medical procedure, against Dr. Lewis; (3) direct and vicarious hospital negligence; and (4) battery against Drs. Takla and Lewis.

[131]*131In response to a verdict sheet, which is reproduced in pertinent part in Appendix A, the jury found that none of the defendants had engaged in malpractice in treating Chanel.1 They were next asked, in question III(l), whether Takla, Lewis, or Rahman “obtain[ed] Plaintiffs consent to perform his examination?” The jury answered, “No” for each defendant. The verdict sheet then instructed the jury to proceed to question 111(5) (proximate cause) if it found no consent and to question 111(2) if it found that Carol or Chanel consented to the examinations. Questions 111(2) through (4) included factors relevant to whether New York Public Health Law § 2805-d precluded an award of damages to Chanel based on defendants’ failure to obtain informed consent prior to examining her. Most obviously, a plaintiff cannot recover damages for lack of informed consent if the doctor obtained her consent after giving her appropriate information. See N.Y. Pub. Health L. § 2805-d(l). Nor can the plaintiff recover for an uninformed consent if the procedure was simply diagnostic and did not involve “invasion or disruption of the integrity of the body” or the procedure was required because of an emergency. See id. § 2805 — d(2). Finally, recovery is only possible if “a reasonably prudent person in the patient’s position would not have undergone the treatment or diagnosis if he had been fully, informed.” Id. § 2805 — d(3).

Following the verdict sheet’s instructions, the jury moved to the proximate cause question and found that the doctors’ examinations were a substantial factor in causing Chanel’s injuries. It awarded no damages against Dr. Takla, $150,000 against Dr. Lewis, and $200,000 against Dr. Rahman.

The jury next answered “Yes” to question IV(1), whether the hospital’s conduct was contrary to the standard of care for' general hospitals. The following question, IV(2), asked whether the hospital’s deviation from the standard was a proximate cause of plaintiffs injuries. It provided no space for an answer, but instructed that if the answer was “yes,” the jury should proceed to question IV(3). In response to question IV(3), the jury awarded Chanel $1.5 million for past and future pain and suffering.

The instructions for the battery question, VI, included an admonition that the jury could not find battery with respect to any defendant that it had found liable for any form of negligence. In compliance with those instructions, the jury answered none of the battery questions.2

After the court finished reading the jury’s answers with respect to the informed consent cause of action, defense counsel said: “There are some questions that we skipped over in doing the verdict. ... Every question in each section has to be answered.” The court read the remainder of the jury’s responses and then, sent the jury back to the jury room while the attorneys conferred.

Defense counsel then said: “Your Hon- or, I don’t think this is the verdict, because they have not finished all of the questions. There’s a lot of questions that were skipped over by the jury.” He then pointed out that the jury had not answered the [132]*132proximate cause question on the hospital malpractice claim.

After the court suggested that the Section 2805-d question had been answered completely, defense counsel said, “[actually, not completely.” A law clerk in attendance then added, “[flailed to answer Question Number 2, Question Number 3, Question Number 4, which are all predicate steps in getting to an ultimate decision.” Plaintiffs counsel then noted that the jury had not answered the battery question. The court responded, “Didn’t I say, in the instructions, if there is a decision with respect to negligence, you cannot have battery. But they still have to answer it; right?” Plaintiffs counsel agreed. However, defense counsel said, “I don’t think they have to answer it, according to the court’s instruction to them.”

The court then instructed the jury to answer parts 2 through 4 of question III and the proximate cause question on the hospital’s negligence.

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Bluebook (online)
425 F.3d 126, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/armstrong-ex-rel-armstrong-v-brookdale-university-hospital-medical-ca2-2005.