Sharon Huston v. United Parcel Service, Inc.

434 S.W.3d 630, 2014 WL 1691046, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 4567
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided April 29, 2014·No. 01-12-00387-CV·Published·Cited by 32 cases

Opinion

OPINION

EVELYN V. KEYES, Justice.

Sharon Huston sued United Parcel Service, Inc. (“UPS”) for negligence after one of UPS’s drivers allegedly rear-ended her in an automobile collision. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Huston on liability, and the case proceeded to trial solely on damages. The jury awarded Huston a total of $96,000 in damages, which the trial court reduced to $33,000 pursuant to Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 167. In three issues, Huston contends that (1) the trial court erroneously denied her the opportunity to effectively cross-examine a key defense witness; (2) the trial court erroneously limited the evidence of her past medical expenses to the amounts that a third-party company paid to several of Huston’s medical providers for their accounts receivables; and (3) the jury’s award of zero damages for past and future disfigurement, lost future earning capacity, future physical impairment, and future medical expenses was against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence.

We affirm.

Background

On January 8, 2009, Huston stopped at a red light on the frontage road of 1-45 South and Bellfort. Gabriel Haskin, a driver for UPS, stopped directly behind her in a package truck. According to Has-kin, the traffic light turned green and he started to drive forward, but a driver to the left of him honked and distracted him. When he turned back and looked ahead of him, he noticed that Huston had not started driving forward into the intersection. Haskin slammed on his brakes but was unable to avoid hitting the rear of Huston’s car. The trial court granted partial summary judgment in favor of Huston on liability, and the parties proceeded to trial solely on the issue of damages.

At trial, the parties sharply disputed both the severity of the crash and the severity and extent of Huston’s subsequent injuries. Huston testified that she started to move forward as soon as the light turned green, but, before she could accelerate, Haskin rear-ended her with such force that the collision “shot [her] like six lanes” across the road. She stated that her head “bashed” the steering wheel during the collision, and, as a result, she still had a mark on her forehead at the time of trial, nearly three years after the collision. 1 She also testified that, in the crash, she jammed her wrist, her knee hit the dashboard, her ankles “jammed into the gas pedal,” and she had lower back pain. Huston stated that she still had pain in her back, hips, and neck, that she had trouble sitting for long periods of time, and that she was taking several medications each day. She testified that her understanding was that she might never fully recover from her injuries.

Huston consulted several doctors after the collision. Among her medical procedures after the collision were steroid injec *634 tions, neck surgery, arthroscopic surgery on her knee, back surgery, and carpal tunnel surgery on her left hand. She testified that, in addition to the scar on her forehead, she has other scars from her surgery, including a visible one on her neck.

In contrast to Huston’s testimony that the crash was severe, Haskin estimated that he was traveling approximately five miles per hour when his truck collided with Huston’s car. Dr. John Laughlin, Huston’s own biomedical engineering expert who performed accident reconstruction services, estimated that Haskin was traveling between seven and eleven miles per hour at the time of the collision. Has-kin characterized the damage to Huston’s vehicle as “minimal damage to where she can drive it,” and he stated that his truck sustained no damage at all.

UPS retained Dr. Thomas Grieder, an orthopedic surgeon, to review Huston’s medical records. Dr. Grieder testified via video deposition that the records from the Ben Taub General Hospital emergency room, where Huston went several hours after the collision, were consistent with Haskin’s testimony that the collision occurred at a low speed. He noted that Huston presented inconsistent accounts of the collision to different doctors over the course of her medical care. He testified that, in addition to Huston’s medical records following the collision at issue in this case, he also reviewed medical records from a car accident that Huston had in 2008, the year before the accident at issue in this case. He stated that x-rays of Huston’s neck taken at that time revealed degenerative disc disease. He also testified that the medical records from the collision at issue revealed degenerative changes in Huston’s knee, noticeable on x-rays the day after the collision. He stated that degenerative changes could not occur because of trauma within that short a period of time.

Dr. Grieder testified that the medical records he reviewed revealed “no evidence that Ms. Huston sustained an identifiable injury to her right knee” as a result of the collision. He opined that Huston’s problems leading to her knee surgery were not caused by the collision at issue and that she did not have an injury that necessitated the physical therapy that one of her doctors prescribed for her knee. He further testified that, several days after the collision, Huston’s lumbar spine x-rays appeared normal and showed no injuries. He testified that Huston’s cervical spine x-rays, taken two months after the collision, revealed degenerative disc disease, which could not be caused by an auto accident or whiplash. Dr. Grieder also testified that the neck and back surgeries that Huston underwent were not warranted because he was “not aware of any injury that she sustained in her neck or back that would— that would benefit from surgery.” He stated, “My opinion is I have no evidence that [Huston] required any of that treatment to treat any injuries sustained in this accident.” Dr. Grieder ultimately concluded that Huston sustained no permanent injury as a result of the collision, that she did not need further medical treatment, and that, in seeking treatment and recovery of damages, she was motivated by secondary gain, and not the primary goal of restoration of good health.

Huston also alleged that she suffered from traumatic brain injury as a result of the collision. UPS retained Dr. Francisco Perez, a neuropsychologist, to evaluate this claim. During his examination of her, Huston secretly recorded the encounter, and then played a portion of this recording at Dr. Perez’s deposition in an attempt to challenge his recollection of how his session with her had ended. Huston subse *635 quently moved to strike Dr. Perez’s testimony on grounds of perjury. The trial court denied this motion.

The parties later submitted their page/ line designations for the excerpts from Dr. Perez’s video deposition that each party desired to publish to the jury at trial. At a pre-trial hearing, the trial court ruled on these designations. It is undisputed that, at this hearing, the trial court made a ruling limiting Huston’s cross-examination of Dr. Perez. The parties strongly disagree, however, regarding the scope of that ruling and whether the ruling applied solely to the excerpts of Dr. Perez’s deposition testimony or whether it would apply if Huston called Dr. Perez to testify live. Huston did not request a reporter’s record of this pre-trial hearing and none was made. Therefore, the trial court’s specific ruling on this question does not appear in the appellate record.

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Sharon Huston v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 434 S.W.3d 630, 2014 WL 1691046, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 4567 (Tex. Ct. App. 2014).

434 S.W.3d 630 (Sharon Huston v. United Parcel Service, Inc.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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