Ravenscraft v. Durrani

Citations

• 2025 Ohio 2900

Syllabus

MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE — INFORMED CONSENT — FRAUDULENT MISREPRESENTATION — CIV.R. 42 — JOINT TRIALS — COMMON QUESTIONS OF LAW OR FACT — JURY INSTRUCTIONS — COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE — ADVERSE INFERENCE — PREJUDICE — EXPERT TESTIMONY — EVID.R. 702 — COMPETENCE — EVID.R. 601 — HABIT EVIDENCE — EVID.R. 406 — JURY INTERROGATORIES — CIV.R. 49: The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it ordered joint trials for two plaintiffs because common questions of law and fact existed where (1) the plaintiffs received the same diagnosis and spine surgery from surgeon defendant; (2) expert testimony focused on whether those surgeries were medically indicated; and (3) the plaintiffs sought damages from the same defendants for negligence, fraudulent misrepresentation, and informed-consent claims and the record does not indicate that the jury ignored the trial court's instruction to consider each case on its own merits. The trial court abused its discretion when it admitted evidence of surgeon defendant's habitual assurances to patients under Evid.R. 406 without a proper foundation, but that error was harmless where the record (1) includes evidence of identical assurances to patient plaintiffs and (2) does not suggest that the jury relied on the habit evidence to reach its verdict. The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it found that the physician witness satisfied Evid.R. 601's active-clinical-practice requirement demonstrating the physician witness's competency because the rule was amended during the pendency of the plaintiffs' actions, and therefore applied to their cases, to permit a trial court to find that a physician who devoted half of his professional time to the active clinical practice in his field when the negligent act occurred is competent to testify as an expert. The trial court did not abuse its discretion when it declined to instruct the jury on patient plaintiff's comparative negligence where the evidence failed to show that patient plaintiff's failure to