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Horvitz & Levy persuaded the Court of Appeal to affirm the judgment on a jury verdict for a hospital after a 41-day trial in a high-exposure medical malpractice action.
Plaintiff Ayani Elizondo was born with severe brain injuries at Riverside Community Hospital. Through her mother and guardian ad litem, Elizondo alleged that her injuries were caused by the negligence of her physicians and the hospital’s nurses shortly before her delivery. At trial, the parties agreed that Elizondo’s brain injuries were caused by a lack of oxygen and blood flow to the brain, but they disagreed about the cause and timing of the injury. According to Elizondo, a clot formed in the umbilical cord around 20 minutes before birth, the injury would not have occurred if she had been delivered 20 minutes earlier, and each defendant negligently caused delays in her delivery. According to the hospital, Elizondo’s umbilical cord was compressed for an extended period between one week and several hours before delivery, and nothing any defendant did caused her injury. After a 41-day trial, the jury concluded that none of the defendants negligently treated Elizondo or her mother.
On appeal, Elizondo argued (1) the trial court erred by instructing the jury with the BAJI jury instruction on “alternative methods of diagnosis or treatment,” rather than the corresponding CACI instruction, (2) jurors committed misconduct by failing to disclose during voir dire their involvement in prior bankruptcies and credit collection actions when asked if they had been involved in prior “lawsuits or legal claims,” (3) one juror changed his vote during polling as a result of pressure from another juror, (4) the trial court made several evidentiary errors, and (5) the verdict was contrary to the weight of the evidence. The Court of Appeal rejected all of these arguments in a thorough unpublished opinion. The California Supreme Court denied Elizondo’s petition for review.
