Fear Not Law Articles: GREER v. BUZGHEIA PART II

GREER v. BUZGHEIA

Filed 7/5/06; pub. order 8/1/06 (see end of opn.)

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT

(Sacramento)

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JAMES ROBERT GREER,

Plaintiff and Respondent,

HOSSAM ALI BUZGHEIA,

Defendant and Appellant.

C049444

(Super. Ct. No. 01AS06618)

Story Continue from Part I â€¦â€¦..

By contrast, the verdict here did not suffer from any legal defectâ€‘â€‘it simply was not specific enough to render it amenable to the type of challenge defendant now raises. There was nothing wrong with the verdict form proposed by plaintiff. Indeed, as counsel for defendant pointed out, it was taken directly from the model verdict forms contained in the Judicial Council of California Civil Jury Instructions (2003-2004) (CACI). (See CACI No. VFâ€‘401.) In her posttrial declaration, defendant's counsel admitted that she approved the verdict form, but claimed that her mind was not focused on potential Nishihama issues despite the trial court's conditional denial of her pretrial Hanif/Nishihama motion. The trial court's pretrial flexibility is mirrored in the use note to the CACI No. VFâ€‘401, which states, â€

Description	Where plaintiff offered evidence of medical expenses that were not actually paid. Trial court correctly denied motion in limine; while postverdict reduction of jury's award of medical expenses may be appropriate in those circumstances, defendant cannot prevent jury from hearing evidence regarding reasonable medical costs for plaintiff's care in the first instance. Defendant's failure to request that award of past medical expenses be determined by special verdict waived contention that damage award included medical expenses not actually paid or incurred.
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