Irish v. Gimbel

1997 ME 50, 691 A.2d 664, 1997 Me. LEXIS 43
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedMarch 18, 1997
StatusPublished
Cited by60 cases

This text of 1997 ME 50 (Irish v. Gimbel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Irish v. Gimbel, 1997 ME 50, 691 A.2d 664, 1997 Me. LEXIS 43 (Me. 1997).

Opinion

WATHEN, Chief Justice.

[¶ 1] Plaintiffs Russell and Laurie Irish, husband and wife, and their minor child, Shane, appeal from an adverse judgment entered in the Superior Court (Cumberland County, Saufley J.) on a jury verdict in their medical malpractice action against defendant, Gregory Gimbel, M.D. On appeal plaintiffs present several constitutional challenges to the prelitigation screening process required for claims of medical malpractice by 24 M.R.S.A. § 2851-2859 (1990 & Supp.1996). Although we uphold the constitutionality of mandatory screening, we conclude that the court’s application of section 2857(1) 1 in this case, requiring admission of the panel’s findings “without explanation”, violated plaintiffs’ constitutional right to a jury trial. Accordingly, we vacate the judgment. In order to assist the parties and the trial court, we also address those evidentiary rulings challenged in plaintiffs’ appeal and defendant’s cross-appeal that are likely to recur in a new trial.

[¶ 2] The procedural history and the facts presented' at trial may be summarized as follows: Defendant, a physician practicing obstetrics, delivered Shane Irish on May 15, 1987, at a hospital in Brunswick. Nearly two years later, on March 16, 1989, plaintiffs filed a notice of claim, pursuant to 24 M.R.S.A. § 2903 (1990 & Supp.1996), alleging negligence in the course of the delivery resulting in a brachial plexus palsy of Shane’s right upper arm along with “potential audiologieal deficiencies and esotropia.” A prelitigation *668 screening panel was appointed 2 and the parties engaged in prehearing discovery until August of 1991. After a hearing held in October of 1991, the three-member screening panel unanimously ruled that defendant’s acts or omissions “did not constitute a deviation from the applicable standards of care.” 3

[¶ 3] Plaintiffs then proceeded with this action in the Superior Court alleging that Shane Irish suffered physical and mental injuries proximately caused by defendant’s negligence. 4 In May of 1993, before trial, plaintiffs filed a second notice of claim alleging that defendant’s negligence resulted in a brain injury in addition to the brachial plexus injury. Plaintiffs alleged the existence of a brain injury that they had not been aware of and that was evidenced by recent neurological tests. They contended that the brain injury was caused by a deprivation of oxygen when Shane was stuck in the birth canal. On defendant’s motion to dismiss, the court (Lipez J.) found that the brain injury claim presented a new theory of negligence that plaintiffs failed to present to the prelitigation screening panel. Applying res judicata principles, the court held that the panel’s determination on the first claim barred a second claim. The court left open the possibility that, at the trial, plaintiffs could present evidence of brain injury if related to the theory of negligence set forth in their first notice of claim.

[¶ 4] Before trial, plaintiffs moved for permission to present testimony with respect to the brain injury and requested a jury instruction that the negative findings of the screening panel could not be considered in assessing defendant’s liability for that injury. The trial judge determined that the brain injury was not related to the theory of negligence considered by the screening panel and denied the motion.

[¶ 5] The court also denied plaintiffs’ pretrial motions challenging the constitutionality of the screening process. Plaintiffs sought the exclusion of the findings of the panel from evidence or, in the alternative, an instruction that the findings should be afforded less weight than any other evidence in the case. At trial, the panel findings were admitted as evidence, and the court made the following preliminary remarks to the jury:

It is important for you to understand that you are not bound by the findings of the panel. You are the final decision makers in this case. However, in your deliberations at the close of this ease, you may consider those findings as you would any other evidence that may be presented in this trial. You may give those findings whatever weight you find is appropriate.

The court restricted counsel to “comments that do not go essentially beyond my comments” and prohibited counsel from informing the jury that their ability to comment on this particular piece of evidence was restrict *669 ed. The court permitted defendant to display an enlarged copy of the finding to the jury on a 3' x 4' poster and to refer to the panel as a “neutral panel,” but denied defendant’s request to be permitted to identify the panel members or their professions. 5 At the conclusion of the trial, the court provided the following instructions with reference to the panel finding:

Also in evidence in this case are the findings of the pre-litigation screening panel. I remind you you are the final decision-makers in this case. The panel findings are not binding upon you. You may consider them with all of the other evidence that has been introduced at this trial.

The jury found no negligence and plaintiffs now appeal from the judgment entered in favor of defendant.

I. The Constitutional Challenges

[¶ 6] In attacking the constitutionality of the prelitigation screening panel statute, plaintiffs bear the heavy burden of overcoming our presumption that the statute is constitutionally valid. They must demonstrate convincingly that the statute conflicts with the Constitution. State v. McGillicuddy, 646 A.2d 354, 355 (Me.1994). All reasonable doubts must be resolved in favor of the constitutionality of the statute. Portland Pipe Line Corp. v. Environmental Improvement Commission, 307 A.2d 1, 11 (Me.1973). Moreover, if a constitutional infirmity is proven, and the statute is susceptible of more than one interpretation, “we must adopt an interpretation, if one there be, which will render it constitutional.” Id.

A. Right to a Jury Trial

[¶ 7] Plaintiffs contend that the statute violates their right to a trial by jury as secured by the Maine Constitution:

In all civil suits, and in all controversies concerning property, the parties shall have a right to a trial by jury, except in cases where it has heretofore been otherwise practiced....

Me. Const. art. I, § 20. A party has a right to a jury trial in all civil actions unless it is affirmatively shown that jury trials were unavailable in such a ease in 1820. DesMarais v. Desjardins, 664 A.2d 840, 844 (Me.1995). 6

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Bluebook (online)
1997 ME 50, 691 A.2d 664, 1997 Me. LEXIS 43, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/irish-v-gimbel-me-1997.