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Redfield v. Beverly Health & Rehabilitation Services1/30/2001
ther or not Appellant made a submissible case, we view the evidence and inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to Appellant, and disregard all contrary evidence. Community Title, 796 S.W.2d at 371. A review of the record and Appellant's expert witnesses' testimony reveals that there was sufficient evidence to establish that the ventilator was defective. Appellant's experts Dr. Feinberg (Feinberg), and Dr. Dale Rummer (Rummer), testified that the ventilator was unreasonably dangerous. Both Feinberg and Dennis Tureson, an employee of Aequitron, testified that as an electronic device, the ventilator was susceptible to EMI. Rummer testified that the ventilator was susceptible to failure due to the age of the technology incorporated into its mechanisms and the complexity of the interconnections necessary to run the machine. Feinberg testified that the absence of a redundant backup breathing system made the machine unreasonably dangerous because the user depends upon the machine to sustain his life. Rummer testified that the absence of an independent redundant alarming system made the machine dangerous for the same reason. Rummer testified that the ventilator was susceptible to EMI failure or electronic device failure because there were more interconnections in the ventilator than necessary. We find the record contained sufficient evidence that the ventilator was defective.
A review of the record and Appellant's expert witnesses' testimony reveals that there was also sufficient evidence to establish that there was a causal relationship between the alleged defects in ventilator and Jones's death. Whitaker and Radford testified that the ventilator was not working when they discovered Jones not breathing. As a result, Jones's chest was not rising or falling; the ventilator was silent when there was normally a whooshing sound when the machine was working; and there was no audible alarm sounding. Appellant's expert Dr. McGinty testified that Jones died from oxygen deprivation. We find the record contained sufficient evidence that the ventilator's defective condition caused Jones's death. Based on the foregoing, Point one is denied.
In its second point, Aequitron argues that the trial court erred in not granting Aequitron a new trial on the alternative ground that the trial court abused its discretion in sustaining Appellant's objection to Aequitron's evidence that the LP10 ventilator performed adequately during EMI testing, because the trial court erroneously concluded that Aequitron failed to disclose this evidence before trial in response to interrogatory no. 5 of Appellant's third set of interrogatories. Aequitron contends that it correctly answered interrogatory no. 5 in that the interrogatory requested only testing that resulted in warnings and cautions in Aequitron's user manual, and the testing did not result in any such warnings. Aequitron maintains it was prejudiced by this error because Feinberg testified that EMI caused the ventilator to fail and that the ventilator was defective because it did not contain an independent backup system in the event of such a failure.
The trial court has broad discretion to control discovery. Wilkerson v. Prelutsky, 943 S.W.2d 643, 647 (Mo.banc 1997). This discretion extends to the trial court's choice of remedies in response to the non-disclosure of evidence or witnesses during discovery. Id. at 648. Judicial discretion is abused when the trial court's ruling is clearly against the logic of the circumstances then before the court and is so arbitrary and unreasonable as to shock the sense of justice and indicate a lack of careful consideration. Id. If reasonable persons can differ as to the propriety of the trial court's action, then it cannot b
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