Redfield v. Beverly Health & Rehabilitation Services, Inc.

42 S.W.3d 703, 2001 Mo. App. LEXIS 178, 2001 WL 69472
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 30, 2001
DocketED 77730
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 42 S.W.3d 703 (Redfield v. Beverly Health & Rehabilitation Services, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Redfield v. Beverly Health & Rehabilitation Services, Inc., 42 S.W.3d 703, 2001 Mo. App. LEXIS 178, 2001 WL 69472 (Mo. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

SULLIVAN, Judge.

Elinor Redfield (Appellant) appeals from the trial court’s judgment granting the Motions of Aequitron Medical, Inc. (Aequi-tron) and Beverly Health and Rehabilitation Services, Inc. (Beverly) for New Trial based on intentional nondisclosure by juror LaDonna Hopper (Hopper). We reverse with directions for the trial court to reinstate the judgment.

Appellant is the mother of decedent Mark Jones (Jones). Jones was a ventilator dependent quadriplegic who lived in a nursing home operated by Beverly. On June 24, 1997, at approximately 7:05 a.m., respiratory therapist Sandra Radford (Radford) began to administer a treatment to Jones at the home. Radford completed this treatment between 8:20 and 8:25 a.m. Radford testified that she checked the ventilator circuit before leaving Jones that morning and that it was functioning properly. At 8:35, nurse Penny Whitaker (Whitaker) entered Jones’s room and noticed that Jones was cold, clammy and unresponsive. Radford returned to Jones’s room and noticed that Jones’s supplemental oxygen tube was lying disconnected on the floor. Appellant was notified that Jones’s breathing apparatus had been unplugged for forty-five minutes, and that Jones was experiencing problems and would be transported to the hospital. On June 27, 1997, Jones had no brain activity. Appellant had Jones’s life support disconnected and he died on June 27,1997.

Appellant brought a strict products liability and negligent design action against Aequitron, the designer of Jones’s ventilator, and a medical negligence cause of action against Beverly and Radford. The jury returned a verdict in favor of Appellant in the amount of $2,000,000. Aequi-tron and Beverly filed Motions to View Jury List seeking information about jurors to determine whether or not any of the jurors had failed to disclose information during voir dire. The trial court granted the motions. Aequitron and Beverly then filed Motions for New Trial based on the allegation that six of the twelve jurors had failed to disclose relevant information during voir dire pertaining to prior claims and/or lawsuits. A post-trial hearing was held wherein three of the six jurors were questioned. The trial court granted the Motions for New Trial based on its finding that Hopper intentionally failed to disclose *708 that she was involved in a lawsuit against Bi State filed in late 1995. Hopper had sustained injuries to her back and neck when she was a passenger on a Bi-State bus that was involved in a collision. The lawsuit settled in April 1996. After all expenses were paid out, including medical expenses and attorney’s fees, Hopper received $500 from the settlement.

In her point on appeal, Appellant maintains that the trial court erred in granting the Motions of Aequitron and Beverly for New Trial because the trial court’s finding of intentional nondisclosure by Hopper was unsupported by the evidence and testimony. 1

The trial court’s findings regarding whether a juror’s explanation for nondisclosure during voir dire is reasonable are given great weight and will not be disturbed on appeal unless the trial court abused its discretion. Brines By and Through Harlan v. Cibis, 882 S.W.2d 138, 139 (Mo.banc 1994). Intentional nondisclosure occurs: 1) where there exists no reasonable inability to comprehend the information solicited by the question asked of the prospective juror, and 2) where it develops that the prospective juror actually remembers the experience or that it was of such significance that the juror’s purported forgetfulness is unreasonable. Heinen v. Healthline Management, Inc., 982 S.W.2d 244, 247-248 (Mo.banc 1998). Finding that a juror had a “reckless disregard” for the responsibility to disclose information during voir dire is tantamount to intentional nondisclosure. Id. at 248. A finding of intentional nondisclosure is tantamount to a per se rule mandating a new trial. Id. However, such findings must be supported by the record. Id.

Unintentional disclosure exists where the experience forgotten was insignificant or remote in time, or where the venireper-son reasonably misunderstands the questions posed. Williams By and Through Wilford v. Barnes Hosp., 736 S.W.2d 33, 36 (Mo.banc 1987).

In the instant case, the relevant questions posed by defense counsel at voir dire were:

Is there anyone who is currently a plaintiff or defendant in a civil matter? A civil matter like what we have here today where somebody is suing somebody else? Whether you’re a plaintiff, whether you’re the one doing the suing or whether you’re a defendant, you’re the one being sued?
Let’s not talk about currently, but let’s talk about the past. In the first group of twelve, is there anyone in the group of twelve in the past that was a plaintiff or a defendant in a civil lawsuit?
Now, I think Mr. Strum asked about being a plaintiff or a defendant and Ms. Simmons we found out that you had a claim but you did not really file a lawsuit, but has anyone else ever had a claim for money damages, not a lawsuit, maybe it didn’t get that far but has anyone ever in the panel had a claim that sought money damages?

Hopper did not respond to any of these inquiries at voir dire.

At the post-trial hearing, the trial court found that Hopper did not state that she had forgotten the cases which she failed to disclose. “Cases” include not only the Bi State litigation, but also a workers’ compensation matter where her former employer, McDonald’s, filed a workers’ compensation report of injury when Hopper injured herself at work, and an automobile *709 accident in which Hopper, as an underaged driver, backed an automobile into another driver. The court apparently considered these two additional cases in coming to its decision: “Rather [Hopper’s] failure to relate all of the instances here would seem to indicate a reckless disregard for her responsibilities.”

We disagree. In the automobile accident case, Hopper was neither a named plaintiff nor defendant. Hopper’s father was the named defendant. Hopper had no claim for money damages because of the accident. Therefore, Hopper was not obligated to disclose this case in response to the above questions posed during voir dire. In the workers’ compensation case, Hopper herself did not file a claim. Rather her employer filed a Report of Injury. Hopper did not have a lawyer, nor did she receive any compensation. Therefore, Hopper was not required to disclose this case during voir dire. In fact, at the post-trial hearing, Hopper testified that she did not even remember the incident in question.

Turning to the Bi-State litigation, the trial court specifically found that Hopper did not indicate that she had forgotten the Bi-State case. However, the record shows that Hopper testified at the post-trial hearing as follows:

Q. [Counsel for defense] Okay. Now, these questions about whether anyone had been a plaintiff or defendant in a civil lawsuit, why did you not bring this matter to the lawyers and to the Court’s attention, this injury and lawsuit in relating to the Bi State bus accident?

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Bluebook (online)
42 S.W.3d 703, 2001 Mo. App. LEXIS 178, 2001 WL 69472, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/redfield-v-beverly-health-rehabilitation-services-inc-moctapp-2001.