Hutto v. McNeil-PPC, Inc.

79 So. 3d 1199, 11 La.App. 3 Cir. 609, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 1456, 2011 WL 6058038
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 7, 2011
DocketNo. 11-609
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 79 So. 3d 1199 (Hutto v. McNeil-PPC, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hutto v. McNeil-PPC, Inc., 79 So. 3d 1199, 11 La.App. 3 Cir. 609, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 1456, 2011 WL 6058038 (La. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

PICKETT, Judge.

| ,The defendant drug manufacturer in this products liability/medical malpractice case appealed a judgment that held it and the defendant health care provider liable to the plaintiffs for the death of their infant daughter. The defendant health care provider and the plaintiffs answered the appeal. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment.

FACTS

Brianna Hutto was born to Eric and Christina Hutto on July 31, 2002. Eric and Christina were seventeen years of age and lived with Christina’s mother, Theresa Oliver, in St. Landry Parish. The morning of January 3, 2003, Brianna was fussy and running a slight fever; she was vomiting, and her bowel movements were not normal. Christina gave Brianna 0.8 ml of Infants’ Tylenol® Concentrated Drops (Infants’ Tylenol®). When Brianna’s fever did not subside and her condition did not [1205]*1205improve, Christina brought her to the emergency department of Opelousas General Hospital (OGH). While waiting for Brianna to be seen by a physician, Christina showed OGH emergency department personnel the bottle of Infants’ Tylenol® she had administered to Brianna that morning. Brianna’s 11:00 a.m. dose of 0.8 ml Infant’s Tylenol® was noted on the Intake sheet generated with Brianna’s treatment that evening.

After Brianna was examined by the emergency physician, an OGH nurse gave Christina written after-care instructions which instructed that Brianna be given three-quarters of a teaspoon “Tylenol®.” Theresa questioned whether the dose was appropriate for such a young infant, and the nurse left her and Christina. The nurse returned and changed the instruction from three-quarters of a teaspoon [2to one teaspoon, explaining the higher dose would be more effective for Brianna’s weight.

Unbeknownst to Christina and Theresa, the nurse’s instruction referred to Children’s Tylenol® not Infant’s Tylenol® because OGH used Children’s Tylenol® exclusively. Christina and Theresa assumed the instruction referred to the Infants’ Tylenol® Christina used before bringing Brianna to the hospital because she had shown the bottle to OGH personnel. At the time, OGH nurses, not doctors, calculated the appropriate doses of acetaminophen. OGH’s representative testified that the nurse did not consult the doctor who treated Brianna when he gave his “Tylenol®” dosing instruction. Infant’s Tylenol® is approximately four times more concentrated than Children’s Tylenol®.

OGH had a written policy on addressing questions caregivers, like Christina and Theresa, had about Tylenol® dosing. The policy required OGH personnel to give the caregivers a Tylenol® dosing sheet. The dosing sheet was prepared and distributed by McNeil; it identified four different Tylenol® products that are for infants or children and specified the different dosing instructions for each product. OGH’s policy also required its personnel to circle the correct dose on the dosing sheet to insure caregivers knew which product and how much product to administer to the infant or child patient. OGH admitted that it violated its own policy by not providing Christina and Theresa with a dosing sheet.

The Huttos testified that after leaving OGH, they administered one teaspoon of Infants’ Tylenol® to Brianna four times: 12:00 midnight to 1:00 a.m. January 4; January 4, between 7:80 and 8:00 a.m. and again at approximately 8:00 p.m.; and January 5 at 5:80 p.m. Eric gave Brianna Infants’ Tylenol®, at 5:30 p.m. January 5. She continued to run a high fever and appeared lethargic, and he returned with |sher to the OGH emergency department. Initially, OGH personnel informed Eric there was no reason to admit Brianna. However, Eric’s father had accompanied Eric to OGH, and he insisted that she be admitted because of her condition.

On the morning of January 6, tests showed that Brianna had acetaminophen toxicity. Mucomyst, the antidote for acetaminophen overdose, was given to Brianna. After further testing showed that Brianna’s liver had been damaged, she was transported by helicopter to Children’s Hospital in New Orleans. In New Orleans, it was determined that Brianna needed a liver transplant to survive, and she was transported to a liver transplant hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. The viral illness for which Brianna was initially treated at OGH prevented a transplant from being performed, and she died of liver failure secondary to acetaminophen toxicity on January 8, 2003.

Eric and Christina filed two separate lawsuits: one against OGH and Dr. Guy [1206]*1206Godeaux for medical malpractice, as provided in the Louisiana Medical Malpractice Act, La.R.S. 40:1299.41-49, for the erroneous Infants’ Tylenol® dosing instruction given to them and one against McNeil-PPC, Inc. (McNeil), the manufacturer of Infants’ Tylenol® for products liability, pursuant to the Louisiana Products Liability Act (LPLA), La.R.S. 9:2800.51-60. The lawsuits were consolidated for trial. On March 1, 2010, OGH admitted liability and paid the Huttos $100,000.00, pursuant to La.R. 40:1299.42. Dr. Godeaux was then dismissed voluntarily on March 5, 2010. Due to OGH’s admission of liability, the Patients Compensation Fund (PCF) entered the case to defend the fund on the issue of causation and damages. See La. R.S. 40:1299.44. The case proceeded to trial against McNeil and the PCF.

|4The case was tried before a jury over six days from June 15 to 26, 2010. After deliberating, the jury returned a verdict in which it indicated that neither the label on Infants’ Tylenol® nor the design of Infants’ Tylenol® was defective; however, it assessed 23% fault to McNeil. Finding the verdict internally inconsistent, the trial court instructed the jury to continue deliberating to resolve the inconsistency.

The jury did as instructed and, thereafter, returned a verdict finding the labeling on Infants’ Tylenol® was defective; it assessed 23% fault to McNeil, 70% fault to OGH, 2% fault to Christina, and 5% to Theresa. In its verdict, the jury awarded Christina and Eric each damages in the amounts of $1 million for mental pain and suffering and $1 million for their loss of Brianna’s love and affection and awarded survival damages for Brianna’s mental pain and suffering in the amount of $500,000.00 and for her physical pain and suffering in the amount of $500,000.00. On July 15, 2010, the trial court entered judgment based on the jury’s second verdict against McNeil for $1,157,774.40, exclusive of interest, and against the PCF for $421,912.19, exclusive of interest.

All the parties filed motions for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV), which the trial court denied after a hearing. McNeil appealed, and the Huttos and OGH answered the appeal.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR

Each party assigns errors with the jury’s verdict as follows:

McNeil:
1. Does nondisclosure of a secret agreement between the Huttos and one defendant, whereby that defendant becomes interested in Plaintiffs’ recovery of a large verdict, thereby secretly realigning the parties without the knowledge of the jury, the court or a co-defendant, so taint the trial with unfairness and prejudice to the other defendant that a new trial is mandated?
|s2.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
79 So. 3d 1199, 11 La.App. 3 Cir. 609, 2011 La. App. LEXIS 1456, 2011 WL 6058038, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hutto-v-mcneil-ppc-inc-lactapp-2011.