Mulhern v. Talk of the Town, Inc.

486 N.E.2d 383, 138 Ill. App. 3d 829, 93 Ill. Dec. 282, 1985 Ill. App. LEXIS 2752
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 4, 1985
Docket84-0274
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 486 N.E.2d 383 (Mulhern v. Talk of the Town, Inc.) 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
Mulhern v. Talk of the Town, Inc., 486 N.E.2d 383, 138 Ill. App. 3d 829, 93 Ill. Dec. 282, 1985 Ill. App. LEXIS 2752 (Ill. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

JUSTICE LINDBERG

delivered the opinion of the court:

Defendant, Talk of the Town, Inc., appeals from a judgment of the circuit court of Du Page County entered on a jury verdict in favor of plaintiff, Patrick Mulhern, for injuries he sustained when his car collided with that of Barbara Sheehan (Sheehan). Prior to the accident, Sheehan had consumed alcoholic beverages as a customer of defendant. The jury returned a verdict of $96,000 against defendant, which the trial court remitted to the statutory Dramshop Act limit of $15,000. Defendant appeals the adverse judgment, and plaintiff cross-appeals the statutory remittitur. We affirm.

Plaintiffs complaint alleged that on October 24, 1981, defendant operated a dramshop and served Sheehan certain alcoholic beverages which caused her intoxication. The complaint further alleged that Sheehan operated her car and struck the car in which plaintiff was the passenger. In addition to Sheehan and defendant, plaintiff sued his brother, who was driving the car in which he was a passenger, and another dramshop operator, The Showcase Lounge. Plaintiff reached a settlement with Sheehan and plaintiff’s brother prior to trial. The Showcase Lounge is not a party to this appeal.

On January 10, 1984, defendant filed a pretrial motion in limine requesting the trial court to prohibit plaintiff from introducing or referring to a blood alcohol report or test results of Sheehan taken on October 24, 1981, at the Hinsdale Sanitarium and Hospital. The motion made no factual allegations, contained no affidavits and stated no legal grounds, although copies of certain statutes and cases were appended to the motion. Although no evidence was introduced, the trial court heard arguments from both parties regarding the motion in limine.

In denying defendant’s motion in limine, the trial court concluded that the blood test certification requirements of the Illinois Vehicle Code were not applicable to the case because Sheehan was not arrested. The court also questioned defendant about whether Sheehan had consented to the blood test and defendant represented that she would testify at trial that she did not consent to the blood test. The parties agreed that Sheehan was never arrested for any offense resulting from the automobile accident.

After the jury returned a verdict for plaintiff in the amount of $96,000, defendant filed a timely post-trial motion on February 10, 1984, requesting the court to set aside the verdict, to vacate the judgment entered on the verdict, and to enter judgment notwithstanding the verdict in favor of defendant. In section I of defendant’s post-trial motion, defendant contended the trial court had erred in denying its motion in limine to bar introduction of the blood alcohol report because the test was not taken incident to her arrest or with Sheehan’s consent. In addition, defendant contended the testimonies of the emergency room nurse and the laboratory technologist were erroneously allowed because neither was certified to perform the test.

In section II of defendant’s post-trial motion, defendant requested the court to reduce the judgment to the $15,000 statutory limit contained in the Dramshop Act. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1981, ch. 43, par. 135.) On February 23, 1984, the trial court denied section I of the defendant’s post-trial motion, but granted the relief requested in section II. Defendant filed a timely notice of appeal and plaintiff filed a timely notice of cross-appeal challenging the constitutionality of the Dram-shop Act insofar as it imposes a statutory limit of $15,000 on an injured person’s right of recovery.

Preliminarily, our review of the record suggests that the trial court’s ruling was based upon the DUI statute as it appears in the 1983 version of the Illinois Vehicle Code. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 951/2, par. 11 — 501 et seq.) Defendant premises its argument on the 1983 version of the Illinois Vehicle Code and plaintiff does not contest the applicability of the 1983 version, and, therefore; this appeal will be resolved based on this version of the statute.

Defendant argues that admission of the blood test results was error because Sheehan was not arrested, neither the technologist conducting the blood test nor the hospital in which the test was administered was certified for testing pursuant to section 11 — 501.2 (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 95V2, par. 11 — 501.2), and she did not consent to the blood test. Plaintiff counters that a dramshop such as defendant does not have standing to assert the rights of Sheehan. We do not decide this question regarding standing, however, because even if defendant can raise Sheehan’s rights relative to admission of the blood test results, we conclude the trial court did not err in allowing admission of the test results.

Defendant first relies upon section 11 — 501.2(a) to argue that an arrest for a section 11 — 501 offense is a prerequisite to admission of the blood test results. As emphasized by defendant, that section provides:

“Upon the trial of any civil or criminal action or proceeding arising out of an arrest for an offense as defined in Section 11 — 501 or a similar local ordinance, evidence of the concentration of alcohol, other drug or combination thereof in a person’s blood or breath at the time alleged, as determined by analysis of the person’s blood, urine, breath or other bodily substance, shall be admissible.” (Emphasis added.) (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 95^/2, par. 11-501.2(a).)

Defendant reads the language emphasized above as precluding admission of a blood test in any proceeding which does not arise out of an arrest for a section 11 — 501 offense. Defendant’s interpretation is undermined by the Illinois Supreme Court’s recent decision in People v. Murphy (1985), 108 Ill. 2d 228. At issue in Murphy was the meaning of section 11 — 501.2, the same section relied upon by defendant here. In concluding that the requirements of that section were inapplicable to a prosecution for reckless homicide, the Murphy court nonetheless concluded that the defendant’s blood test results were admissible based upon “ordinary standards of admissibility.” (People v. Murphy (1985), 108 Ill. 2d 228.) Were defendant’s interpretation of section 11 — 501.2 correct, the blood test results in Murphy could not have been admissible as the defendant in that case apparently was not arrested for an 11 — 501 offense. We note that defendant has raised no argument here based upon ordinary standards of admissibility that Sheehan’s blood test results were inadmissible.

Murphy likewise forcloses defendant’s argument that the blood test results were inadmissible because neither the technologist nor the hospital was certified by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) for blood alcohol testing. Initially, we observe that the record contains contradictory evidence as to whether the hospital was certified. Assuming that the technologist and the hospital were not certified, however, lack of certification would not invalidate Sheehan’s test results, for as our supreme court held in Murphy, the certification requirements and the Standards and Procedures for Testing for Alcohol and/or Other Drugs (Standards) of the IDPH are “applicable only to the offense of driving while under the influence ***.” (People v. Murphy (1985), 108 Ill.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
486 N.E.2d 383, 138 Ill. App. 3d 829, 93 Ill. Dec. 282, 1985 Ill. App. LEXIS 2752, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mulhern-v-talk-of-the-town-inc-illappct-1985.