Mark B. Pattinson v. Richard H. Ubersox

CourtCourt of Appeals of Wisconsin
DecidedOctober 28, 2021
Docket2019AP001866
StatusUnpublished

This text of Mark B. Pattinson v. Richard H. Ubersox (Mark B. Pattinson v. Richard H. Ubersox) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mark B. Pattinson v. Richard H. Ubersox, (Wis. Ct. App. 2021).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS DECISION NOTICE DATED AND FILED This opinion is subject to further editing. If published, the official version will appear in the bound volume of the Official Reports. October 28, 2021 A party may file with the Supreme Court a Sheila T. Reiff petition to review an adverse decision by the Clerk of Court of Appeals Court of Appeals. See WIS. STAT. § 808.10 and RULE 809.62.

Appeal No. 2019AP1866 Cir. Ct. No. 2016CV70

STATE OF WISCONSIN IN COURT OF APPEALS DISTRICT IV

MARK B. PATTINSON,

PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT,

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOSPITAL AND CLINICS,

PLAINTIFF,

FORWARD HEALTH, DEAN HEALTH PLAN AND ARTISAN TRUCKERS CASUALTY COMPANY P/K/A PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE COMPANY,

SUBROGATED-PLAINTIFFS,

V.

RICHARD H. UBERSOX,

DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT,

STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY P/K/A STATE FARM INSURANCE,

DEFENDANT. No. 2019AP1866

APPEAL from a judgment of the circuit court for Lafayette County: JAMES R. BEER, Judge. Affirmed.

Before Blanchard, P.J., Kloppenburg, and Nashold, JJ.

Per curiam opinions may not be cited in any court of this state as precedent

or authority, except for the limited purposes specified in WIS. STAT. RULE 809.23(3).

¶1 PER CURIAM. Mark B. Pattinson appeals a final judgment, entered on a jury verdict, dismissing his personal injury suit against Richard H. Ubersox. At trial, each party argued that the other was negligent in causing a vehicular accident, with Ubersox presenting evidence that Pattinson’s driving reaction time was delayed because of alcohol impairment. On appeal, Pattinson argues that the circuit court erroneously exercised its discretion by: (1) giving a jury instruction setting forth the presumptive effect of chemical tests for intoxication resulting from alcohol consumption; (2) admitting the testimony of Ubersox’s toxicologist expert witness, who relied on the results of Ubersox’s hospital blood test; and (3) prohibiting Pattinson from claiming future medical expenses. We affirm, concluding that Pattinson has not demonstrated error in connection with the jury instruction and that he has forfeited his challenge to the admissibility of Ubersox’s expert witness testimony. Because we uphold the judgment dismissing all claims against Ubersox, we do not reach Pattinson’s argument regarding medical expenses.

BACKGROUND

¶2 On September 21, 2013, at approximately 8:25 p.m., a collision occurred on State Highway 23 near Darlington, Wisconsin, between Pattinson’s

2 No. 2019AP1866

motorcycle and Ubersox’s pick-up truck. Pattinson was injured and taken to the emergency department of Memorial Hospital in Darlington.

¶3 Pattinson sued Ubersox, claiming that Ubersox’s negligent failure to yield caused the crash. The case proceeded to a five-day jury trial. Pattinson testified to the following version of events. Pattinson was driving his motorcycle in the southbound lane of Highway 23, at or below the 55 mph speed limit. Pattinson saw Ubersox’s truck emerge from a driveway ahead of Pattinson and on his right. Ubersox, without stopping, turned left out of the driveway and into the northbound lane of Highway 23. Pattinson feared that he was going to hit Ubersox; he swerved left and right, but could not avoid Ubersox. Pattinson further testified to having consumed alcohol in the hours before the collision.

¶4 Pattinson also presented the expert testimony of Jeffrey Peterson, an accident reconstructionist. Peterson’s testimony included the following. At the time of impact, Ubersox’s truck was “at an angle” and mainly in the northbound lane, but the “left rear corner [of the truck was] still in the southbound lane a little bit.” Pattinson’s motorcycle crossed the center line just prior to collision and Pattinson “would have avoided the impact” if he “had braked and simply stayed in his lane.” Pattinson started to skid his motorcycle just before the crash, at which time Pattinson was traveling 54-62 miles per hour.

¶5 Ubersox testified to the following version of events. Ubersox stopped at the end of his driveway, looked both ways, and saw Pattinson’s headlight to the left. It was not until Ubersox started turning left, however, that he realized that the motorcycle was traveling faster than he expected. Ubersox sped up to try to get out of the way, at the same time realizing that Pattinson was

3 No. 2019AP1866

veering to the left to try to avoid his truck. Pattinson hit Ubersox once Ubersox was already in the northbound lane and driving north.

¶6 A passenger in Ubersox’s truck also testified, and her testimony was consistent with Ubersox’s.

¶7 Ubersox called Laura Liddicoat, a toxicologist, to testify about Pattinson’s approximate blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at the time of the collision and its potential effect on his reaction time. Among other materials, Liddicoat reviewed Pattinson’s Memorial Hospital medical record and a transcript from his deposition, in which he testified about the details of his food and alcohol consumption before the crash.

¶8 Liddicoat testified to the following. She based her analysis on the result of an alcohol test from a Memorial Hospital blood sample drawn at 9:10 p.m., approximately 45 minutes after the collision. This was a medical and not a “legal” or forensic test (that is, the blood was not drawn and tested for a law enforcement purpose and according to that standard). Therefore, Liddicoat approximated the corresponding forensic test result using a three-step process. She first took the hospital test result and converted that measurement to grams per deciliter, the unit ratio used for BAC in the pertinent Wisconsin Statutes. See WIS. STAT. § 885.235(1)(a) (2019-20).1 Second, because a forensic BAC measurement tests the “whole blood,” rather than the serum or plasma “routinely” tested in hospitals (including at Memorial Hospital), Liddicoat reduced her number by

1 All references to the Wisconsin Statutes are to the 2019-20 version unless otherwise noted. WISCONSIN STAT. § 885.235(1)(a) refers to “grams per 100 milliliter,” which is equivalent to grams per deciliter.

4 No. 2019AP1866

approximately 15%, to convert the hospital serum/plasma measurement to the whole-blood BAC measurement, yielding a result of between .080 to .086 grams per deciliter at the time of the blood test. Third, Liddicoat accounted for the elimination of alcohol from Pattinson’s blood between the times of the collision and the blood test. She also accounted for the possibility that, at the time of the collision, Pattinson may not have absorbed into his bloodstream all of the alcohol he had consumed.

¶9 Liddicoat determined that Pattinson’s BAC at the time of the collision was between .08 and .094 grams per deciliter and “would have been about .09.” Based on her review of the medical literature on alcohol use and reaction times, Liddicoat concluded that this BAC would have caused Pattinson to “experience[] a delay in his complex reaction time” of at least .7 seconds.

¶10 Ubersox also called Curtis Beloy, an accident reconstructionist, whose testimony included the following. Beloy attributed fault to Pattinson, drawing three conclusions about how Pattinson could have avoided the collision. First, Pattinson would have had enough time to brake and stop had he been traveling 55 mph, the speed limit, as opposed to what Beloy calculated to be at least 68.5 mph. Second, Beloy concluded that, at the time of impact, Ubersox was completely over the center line and in the northbound lane. Therefore, the collision would not have happened if Pattinson had remained in his lane. Third, Pattinson could have avoided the collision had he reacted .7 seconds sooner to his noticing Ubersox pulling out of the driveway.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
Mark B. Pattinson v. Richard H. Ubersox, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mark-b-pattinson-v-richard-h-ubersox-wisctapp-2021.