Miller v. Ryan

706 N.E.2d 244, 1999 Ind. App. LEXIS 176, 1999 WL 93358
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 25, 1999
Docket29A02-9612-CV-818
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 706 N.E.2d 244 (Miller v. Ryan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Miller v. Ryan, 706 N.E.2d 244, 1999 Ind. App. LEXIS 176, 1999 WL 93358 (Ind. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

OPINION

MATTINGLY, Judge

In this medical malpractice action, Anthony E. Miller, D.P.M. (Dr. Miller) appeals a jury verdict in favor of Georgia K. Ryan (Ryan) and Woodrow Ryan, Jr. (collectively, the Ryans). We restate the issues he raises as follows:

1. Whether the trial court erred when it refused to give an instruction that the law does not require that a physician guarantee that he will cure the patient or even that he will obtain a good result;

2. Whether the trial court erred when it instructed the jury that a podiatrist may not avoid responsibility during surgery by delegating. part of that surgery to another podiatrist;

3. Whether the trial court erred when it instructed the jury that evidence of Dr. Miller’s counsel’s actions towards a member of the first medical review panel could be considered substantive evidence, as the conduct of an attorney is imputed to the client; and

4. Whether prejudicial evidentiary harpoons injected into the case by the Ryans’ counsel, when viewed in conjunction with the improper instructions, require a new trial.

We affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In December of 1982, Ryan sought treatment with Dr. Thatcher, who practiced podiatry with Dr. Miller at the Burlington Clinic in Kokomo. Ryan, an insulin-dependent diabetic, complained of pain in her left foot. Dr. Thatcher diagnosed Ryan as suffering from, among other things, diabetic neuropa-thy, 1 and a dropped fourth metatarsal bone. He treated her by trimming a callous on the ball of her left foot, ordering x-rays, and prescribing some cream and shoe inserts. The record does not indicate that Ryan had complaints of any pain in her right foot. Ryan returned to Dr. Thatcher a week later and was fitted with the shoe inserts.

On March 24, 1983, Ryan returned to the Burlington Clinic, this time seeing Dr. Miller. Dr. Miller diagnosed that Ryan had problems, including bunions, with both her feet and recommended that she undergo bilateral foot surgery. Dr. Miller claimed that Ryan told him that she was experiencing pain in both feet. Ryan denied that she ever suffered from pain in her right foot. Dr. Miller testified that he informed Ryan of the risks of surgery, in addition to telling her that the pain from her diabetic neuropathy could not be addressed surgically. Ryan denied that she was advised of alternatives to or risks of surgery so that she could give an informed consent.

Ryan underwent bilateral foot surgery in April of 1983. Dr. Miller, designated as the surgeon, performed various surgical procedures on Ryan’s left foot. Simultaneously, Dr. Thatcher, designated as the assisting surgeon, performed the same surgical procedures on Ryan’s right foot. Since these surgeries, Ryan suffers pain in both feet. She has undergone corrective surgery on the right foot to repair a nerve cut during the first surgery and is expected to undergo the same surgery on her left foot.

The Ryans filed Proposed Complaints for medical malpractice against various defendants, including Dr. Miller, an anesthesiologist, and Ryan’s internist. A medical review panel was formed consisting of Dr. Malament, a podiatrist and Drs. Losasso and Clark, neither of whom were podiatrists. After discovery and the submission of evidence to the medical review panel, the panel chair *247 man convened the panel. During that panel meeting, Drs. Malament, Losasso and Clark agreed to issue a finding that the internist and the anesthesiologist had met the applicable standard of care but that Dr. Miller had not. 2

Subsequent to the panel meeting but before the panel chairman had circulated a written opinion for signature, Dr. Miller’s counsel, Frederick LaCava (LaCava), contacted the panel chairman. After inquiring as to whether the panel required any additional information, LaCava was told by the panel chairman that the panel had already decided in favor of the anesthesiologist and the internist but had found that Dr. Miller breached the applicable standard of care.

LaCava then telephoned Dr. Malament and discussed the panel’s findings with him. Unbeknownst to the parties and the other panel members, LaCava represented Dr. Ma-lament in at least one unrelated medical malpractice case. Subsequent to that telephone conversation, Dr. Malament contacted the panel chairman and advised that he had changed his mind with regard to Dr. Miller. Dr. Malament told the panel chairman that he felt the evidence did not support the conclusion that Dr. Miller had failed to meet the applicable standard of care. Dr. Malament refused to sign the panel opinion. As a result, Drs. Losasso and Clark also refused to sign the opinion, as they had relied upon Dr. Malament’s expertise as a podiatrist in forming their own opinions. The panel ultimately signed an opinion that found the anesthesiologist and the internist met the appropriate standard of care, but rendered no opinion as to Dr. Miller, noting that the issues involving Dr. Miller were to be submitted to another medical review panel.

A second medical review panel was convened and unanimously found that the:

evidence does not support the conclusion that [Dr. Miller] failed to meet the applicable standard of care as charged in the Complaint except that it finds a material issue of fact, not requiring expert opinion, bearing on liability for consideration by the court or jury, as to the limited issue of whether Dr. Miller adequately informed the patient that surgery might not alleviate all of her pain.

Supplemental R. at 190.

A disciplinary action was instituted against LaCava as a result of his actions toward Dr. Malament and the medical review panel. See In re LaCava, 615 N.E.2d 93 (Ind.1993).

The Ryans subsequently filed suit against Dr. Miller and the internist. 3 After a trial, a jury returned a verdict in favor of the Ryans for $325,000. The verdict included compensatory damages to Ryan of $290,000 and loss of consortium damages to her husband of $35,000.

DECISION AND DISCUSSION

1. Guarantee Instruction

Dr. Miller submitted the following instruction (the “guarantee instruction”):

The law does not require that a physician guarantee that he will cure his patient or even that he will obtain a good result. The law does require that a physician possess and use that degree of skill and learning which is ordinarily possessed by physicians under the same or similar circumstances at the time of the treatment or service.
Accordingly, a physician will not be negligent if he exercises such reasonable care *248 and ordinary skill even though he mistakes a diagnosis, makes an error in judgment or fails to appreciate the seriousness of the patient’s problems.

R. at 610. This instruction was refused by the trial court.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
706 N.E.2d 244, 1999 Ind. App. LEXIS 176, 1999 WL 93358, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-v-ryan-indctapp-1999.