Martin v. Sally

792 N.E.2d 516, 341 Ill. App. 3d 308, 275 Ill. Dec. 285, 2003 Ill. App. LEXIS 871
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJuly 3, 2003
Docket2-02-0829
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 792 N.E.2d 516 (Martin v. Sally) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Martin v. Sally, 792 N.E.2d 516, 341 Ill. App. 3d 308, 275 Ill. Dec. 285, 2003 Ill. App. LEXIS 871 (Ill. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinions

JUSTICE BYRNE

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff, Kathleen M. Martin, filed suit against defendant, Joel D. Sally, seeking to recover damages for personal injuries allegedly sustained from a motor vehicle accident. Defendant admitted negligence but denied that plaintiffs preexisting injury was aggravated from the accident and denied that plaintiff sustained any injuries by the accident. After hearing the evidence, the jury returned a verdict in favor of defendant. We affirm.

FACTS

Before trial began, both parties filed motions in limine. Plaintiffs motion requested that the trial court bar defendant from eliciting testimony from his expert engineering witness, Mark Strauss, that no human could be injured in this type of occurrence and that plaintiff could not have been injured in this occurrence. The trial court denied her motion.

Defendant’s motion in limine requested that plaintiff be barred from presenting evidence that, following the collision, her son was crying, was claiming to have been injured in the accident, was taken by ambulance to the hospital, or was evaluated and treated. Plaintiff argued that the evidence was relevant because she would be testifying at trial that she was so concerned at the time of the accident that her son might be injured due to his recent appendectomy surgery that she focused her attention on her son’s condition rather than her own, and she therefore did not complain of any injuries to the investigating police officer at the scene of the accident. The trial court granted defendant’s motion.

Based on the trial court’s ruling that defendant could present testimony from his engineer that no human body could have been injured in the accident, plaintiff filed a motion in limine in which she sought to be allowed to present in rebuttal the testimony that her son was crying, he claimed to have been injured, he was taken by ambulance to a hospital, and he received treatment at the hospital for possible injuries. The motion was denied.

The trial court, however, allowed plaintiff to make an offer of proof on the issues as to why she did not complain of her own injury at the scene of the accident and as to whether the impact was such that a person could have been injured in the accident. Plaintiff testified that her 11-year-old son, Cory, was a front seat passenger in the van at the time of the accident. At the moment of impact, she witnessed his body move back and forth. Immediately after the accident, she had a brief conversation with defendant, and when plaintiff finished speaking with him, she noticed Cory crying. She noticed that Cory’s head was down and he was leaning forward. Cory told her that his back and neck hurt. Plaintiff “freaked out,” wondering what to do, because Cory had just undergone an appendectomy weeks before. Plaintiff then called 911 and an ambulance took Cory to the hospital. Cory was evaluated and released that same day. Cory was “uncomfortable” and took a Tylenol but never required any further medical care.

The following facts were presented at trial. On July 10, 1998, plaintiff was driving a 1990 Dodge Caravan westbound on Halsted Street in Rockford and brought her van to a stop at a red light at the intersection of Huffman Boulevard. Cory was seated in the front passenger seat of the van. Defendant was driving a 1988 Chevrolet 1500 pick-up truck westbound on Halsted Street behind plaintiff. It had been raining and the pavement was wet. As defendant approached the red light at the intersection, he saw plaintiffs van in front of him. He applied the brakes, but his tires began skidding on the wet pavement and the front of his truck struck the rear of plaintiffs van. According to defendant, his truck was traveling between five and seven miles per hour when it “squarely” impacted the rear end of plaintiffs van.

Following the accident, both plaintiff and defendant left their vehicles and looked to see if there was any damage. Plaintiffs van was equipped with a trailer hitch at the time. Both parties agreed that there was no damage done to either vehicle, although defendant did see a small dimple in his license plate. Plaintiff admitted that she told defendant that she was all right and she did not complain of any symptoms at the time.

Prior to the accident, plaintiff twice had injured her back while working, once in 1997 and again in March 1998. Plaintiff injured her back on a third occasion in April 1998, while helping her family move. Following these injuries, plaintiff was treated by Drs. Robert Porter, Melinda Carter, and Charles Wright. An MRI of plaintiffs lumbar spine taken on May 6, 1998, showed a disc protrusion at the L4-L5 level. Because of the back injury in April, plaintiff had stopped working and she was not working at the time of the accident at issue. Plaintiff had been in physical therapy treatment and taking medication as prescribed by Dr. Wright due to her injury.

Plaintiff did not seek any medical attention on the day of the accident or within three days following the accident. She admitted telling the therapist on July 13, 1998, that she was feeling gradually improved. On July 14, 1998, four days after the accident, plaintiff attended a physical therapy appointment, which had been scheduled before the accident. She did not see Dr. Wright after the accident until August 6, 1998, and that appointment also had been scheduled before the accident. Plaintiff continued going to her regularly scheduled physical therapy appointments.

Plaintiff explained that her back and neck were sore from the accident but because she already was under a doctor’s care and already was taking pain medication, she did not go to a doctor or hospital for extra care. Plaintiff noticed that her symptoms were getting progressively worse, more than she had ever experienced. Immediately before the accident, plaintiff had been improving to the point where she was feeling like returning to work on a part-time basis.

Dr. Carter, plaintiffs family practitioner, ordered a second MRI of the lumbar spine, which was taken on July 23, 1998. When she ordered the second MRI, Dr. Carter was not aware that plaintiff had been involved in the accident on July 10, 1998. On August 11, 1998, plaintiffs surgeon, Dr. Wright, performed a lumbar discectomy at the L4-L5 level.

At trial, Dr. Wright testified for plaintiff by way of an evidence deposition. He opined that the surgery he performed was causally related to the accident at issue. On cross-examination, however, Wright conceded that his initial clinical examination of plaintiff on May 15, 1998, did not correlate with the MRI of the lumbar spine that had been done on May 6, 1998, because he expected to see a greater degree of disc protrusion and more nerve root compression to the left side. Wright also conceded that any type of heavy physical exertion such as gardening can cause a disc protrusion to progress.

Wright further testified on cross-examination that when he initially gave his opinion that the accident aggravated plaintiff’s injuries, as shown by the preaccident and postaccident MRIs, plaintiff had not given him any specific information about the accident. He did not know whether it was a front-end or a rear-end collision or the severity of the impact between the two vehicles.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Advance Iron Works, Inc. v. Contegra Construction Co., LLC
2025 IL App (1st) 191525-U (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2025)
Bajgrowicz v. DEV Medical Associates, S.C.
2024 IL App (1st) 230196-U (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2024)
Snowstar Corp. v. A&A Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Service, Inc.
2024 IL App (4th) 230757 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2024)
Cassavoy v. Haayer
2021 IL App (2d) 190809-U (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2021)
Ramirez v. Acevedo
2021 IL App (1st) 200799-U (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2021)
Steele v. Provena Hospitals
2013 IL App (3d) 110374 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2013)
Fronabarger v. Burns
385 Ill. App. 3d 560 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2008)
Torress v. Midwest Development Company
Appellate Court of Illinois, 2008
Torres v. Midwest Development Co.
889 N.E.2d 654 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2008)
Webber v. Wight & Co.
858 N.E.2d 579 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2006)
Webber v. Wight & Company
Appellate Court of Illinois, 2006
Curi v. Murphy
Appellate Court of Illinois, 2006
People v. Bush
827 N.E.2d 455 (Illinois Supreme Court, 2005)
Compton v. Ubilluz
Appellate Court of Illinois, 2004
Martin v. Sally
792 N.E.2d 516 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2003)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
792 N.E.2d 516, 341 Ill. App. 3d 308, 275 Ill. Dec. 285, 2003 Ill. App. LEXIS 871, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martin-v-sally-illappct-2003.