Tyler v. Davis

196 So. 3d 258, 2015 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 192, 2015 WL 4991782
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedAugust 21, 2015
Docket2140388
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 196 So. 3d 258 (Tyler v. Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tyler v. Davis, 196 So. 3d 258, 2015 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 192, 2015 WL 4991782 (Ala. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinions

THOMPSON, Presiding Judge.

Corey W. Tyler and Wesley Lyle Gandy were found liable in the Tuscaloosa Circuit Court (“the trial court”) for wantonness and wanton entrustment, respectively, in connection with a motor-vehicle accident in which Haylee Davis was injured. Tyler was driving the vehicle, which belonged to Gandy; Davis, who was 17 years old at the time of the accident, was a passenger in the vehicle. The jury awarded Davis’s mother, Cynthia Cardin, $9,281.90 for [259]*259medical expenses she incurred on behalf of Davis. Davis was awarded $100.

Cardin and Davis filed a motion for a new trial on the ground that the amount of damages awarded to each'’of them was inadequate. Tyler and Gandy moved for an additur of the judgment in favor of Cardin. The trial court granted Tyler and Gandy’s motion, and the award to Cardin was increased to $19,650.80. Cardin’s request for a new trial was then denied; however, the trial court granted Davis’s request for a new trial, stating that the damages awarded to her “were so inadequate as to indicate that the verdict [was] the result of passion, prejudice, or other improper motives such as the injection of the sexual activities of [Davis] and inapplicable defenses of contributory negligence and assumption of the risk.” Tyler and Gandy timely appealed from the order granting Davis a new trial. The appeal does not involve the judgment in favor of Cardin. -¡

Because liability is not an issue on appeal, we will primarily discuss the evidence relevant to the adequacy of damages. The record indicates that late on the night of December 10 or the early morning of December 11, 2010, Davis was injured- when the vehicle in which she was a passenger collided with a -parked vehicle and flipped (hereinafter sometimes referred to as “the first accident”). Tyler, the driver, was under the influence of alcohol at the time. Davis was riding in the backseat.

The accident happened on the street where Davis lived, near Davis’s house. Davis was able to walk to her house after the accident. She went into the laundry room, where Cardin found’her sitting on the floor crying-and trying to remove her bloodied clothes.- Emergency medibal technicians (“EMTs”) and an ambulance were' called to the scene, and Cardin moved Davis into the front yard because, Cardin said, the laundry room was cramped and there would be more room to treat-Davis in the yard.

Randy Burnett, one of the EMTs who treated Davis at the scene, testified that Davis was complaining of pain in her neck and left shoulder, as well as of pain in her chest, back, and legs. He said that he initially noted in his written report that Davis was having pain in her right shoulder but that that was a mistake that he corrected in the assessment portion of the report.

Davis was transported by ambulance to Druid City Hospital (“DCH”) in Tuscaloosa. -Dr. Ahmed Moussa treated Davis in DCH’s emergency room. Dr. Moussa testified that DCH had received a . call from the ambulance regarding Davis’s injuries and were prepared for her when she reached the hospital. The call from the ambulance is based on the EMT report, Dr. Moussa said, so emergency-room personnel initially believed -that Davis was complaining of pain in her right shoulder. However, he said,-his own examination of Davis • indicated that Davis actually had pain in her left shoulder, chest, legs, abdomen, and back. A series of diagnostic tests were run on Davis, including a CT scan and an MRI, and Dr. Moussa determined that Davis had no fractures. Davis testified that she was* .unable to raise her left arm during-the diagnostic tests;, however, Kim Lancaster, a radiology technologist at DCH, testified that the CT scan that was taken the night of the accident shows Davis’s right arm at rest and her left arm lifted above her head.

Davis also had a cut under her chin. Dr. Moussa stitched'the cut under her chin and provided her with pain medication and muscle relaxers. ' Dr. Moussa then advised Davis to see her own physician and released her, and Davis returnéd home.

[260]*260Cardin and Davis- testified that Davis was sore in the days after the accident. About one week after the accident, Davis returned to DCH to have her stitches removed. Davis testified that she was still having pain in her right kneé and left shoulder. However, she said that she did not advise the doctor of her knee and shoulder pain on that follow-up visit because, she said, that was not the reason she was at the hospital. Gandy testified that he visited with Davis often in the days following the accident. He said that Davis did not complain of pain or of popping in her left shoulder. In fact, he said, Davis slept on her left side. Davis also made no complaints to Gandy of her right knee “locking up” or that it was hurting. Gam dy said that Davis did not walk with a limp when he visited her.

Ten days after the accident, Davis was involved in another accident that required a visit to the DCH emergency room. In the December 20, 2010, accident (“the second accident”), Davis drove Cardin’s van without permission. Davis, who had not obtained a driver’s license, collided with another vehicle.- Davis “T-boned” the other vehicle,- and she acknowledged that she was at fault. Cardin testified that the van “was not driveable” after the wreck. Davis said that she ran from the scene because she was afraid she would go to jail because she did not have a driver’s license. Davis was again taken to DCH for treatment because the -cut on her chin had reopened and her chest hurt from being struck by the air bag when it deployed. Davis denied that her left shoulder or right knee was injured in the second accident.

Davis did not have insurance or her own doctor. If she needed medical treatment, she said, she went to the emergency room. Davis testified that .she visited the emergency room on several occasions during 2011 for conditions like colds, fever, and migraine headaches. Although she was still having right-knee- and left-shoulder pain, Davis said, she did not mention that pain to doctors on any of her subsequent emergency-room visits. She said that she did not complain of knee or shoulder pain because, she said, there was “nothing that could have been done about it. I had no health insurance.”

Davis moved to Mississippi and married. On April 17, 2012, Davis was a passenger in a. truck her husband was driving. Davis testified that they were traveling at about 50 miles an hour when the truck hydroplaned and hit a tree (“the third accident”). Davis’s husband was not wearing, a seat-belt, and he was thrown from the truck, breaking his back. Davis was wearing a seatbelt, and her injuries were less severe than her husband’s. -Medical records.from the hospital where she was treated on April 17, 2012, indicate that Davis complained of pain in her right shoulder, hip, and knee. The “clinical impression” portion of the record indicates that Davis suffered contusions on her back, right shoulder, and right knee.

Davis testified that, after the third accident, she had no problems with her right knee, and left shoulder that-she was not already having. Davis said that her left shoulder and right knee had hurt since the first accident.. Cardin said that, after the first accident, Davis’s right knee would “lock up” at times.

Testimony was elicited from Davis and Cardin indicating that, in 2008, Davis had an accident on a “mini-bike” in which she suffered what Davis characterized as “minor injuries.” Davis testified that she was thrown oyer the bike’s handlebars and that she injured “this shoulder,” but we cannot discern from the.

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Bluebook (online)
196 So. 3d 258, 2015 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 192, 2015 WL 4991782, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tyler-v-davis-alacivapp-2015.