Jury Instruction in Medical Malpractice Case Upheld on Appeal

The trial judge in a medical malpractice jury trial correctly adopted the jury instructions in the case over an alleged botched hernia surgery. The Illinois Appellate Court affirmed that ruling. The jury returned a verdict in the defendant’s favor.

The appellate court ruled that the trial judge did not err when giving jury instructions and that the instruction tendered was accurate and without undue repetition. Justice David W. Ellis delivered the opinion of the appellate court.

Jeffrey S. Goldberg sued Dr. N. Scott Peckler and North Suburban Surgical Consultants in the Circuit Court of Cook County. The lawsuit alleged negligence against Dr. Peckler and vicarious liability against North Suburban Surgical Consultants.

The lawsuit related to a 2012 laparoscopic surgery to repair an abdominal hernia where Dr. Peckler accidentally cut Goldberg’s aorta while inserting a trocar.

At trial, the presiding judge adopted Dr. Peckler’s jury instruction, an Illinois Pattern Instruction – Civil (IPI) No. 20.01, which stated that Goldberg claimed “that he was injured and sustained damage” and that the “defendants negligently performed hernia surgery resulting in injury to [Goldberg’s] aorta.” The trial judge rejected Goldberg’s proposed jury instruction, which provided more detailed allegations of negligence, including that the “defendants continued to cut and to advance the trocar inside [Goldberg] when they could not discern the layers of tissue” and “chose to insert the trocar the first time in the anterior-axillary line rather than another location.”

The jury returned a verdict in favor of both defendants. Goldberg filed for a post-trial motion and argued that the trial judge gave the wrong instruction on IPI No. 20.01. The post-trial motion was denied and then the appeal.

In the appellate court’s non-precedential Rule 23 order, Justice Ellis wrote that the trial judge did not incorrectly adopt Dr. Peckler’s jury instruction.

“There can be no serious debate that the instruction tendered was an accurate statement of Goldberg’s allegations at trial,” the appellate court wrote.

Justice Ellis also rejected Goldberg’s argument that Dr. Peckler’s jury instruction lacked sufficient detail and that Illinois law requires that instructions “specify the acts and omissions that the Court determines that the jury could consider to be negligent.”

To support that assertion, Goldberg cited Signa v. Alluri, 351 Ill.App.11 (1953), in which the appellate court held that instructions should concisely and clearly inform the jury of issues “and that this could be accomplished by a summary of the pleadings succinctly stated without repetition and without undue emphasis” and IPI 20.01, which provides that if plaintiff’s negligence allegations should be “set forth in simple form without undue emphasis or repetition.”

The appellate court’s opinion stated that “so we do not agree that the controlling law favors more, not less specificity in issued instructions. Here, again, the tendered IPI No. 20.01 instruction told the jury that plaintiff’s allegation was that Dr. Peckler’s ‘negligently performed hernia surgery resulting in injury to [Goldberg’s] aorta.’ Aside from being entirely accurate, the instruction succinctly summarized Goldberg’s theory without undue emphasis or repetition.” The court went on to state that the jury in its opinion could not possibly be confused by the jury instruction language. As a result, the appellate court affirmed the judgment.

Goldberg v. Peckler, 2024 IL App (1st) 231510-U.

Kreisman Law Offices has been handling medical malpractice lawsuits, birth trauma injury cases, brain damage lawsuits, surgical error lawsuits, and hospital negligence cases for individuals, families and loved ones who have been harmed, injured or died as a result of the carelessness or negligence of a medical provider for more than 48 years in and around Chicago, Cook County and its surrounding areas, including Arlington Heights, Bolingbrook, Calumet City, Wheeling, Waukegan, Des Plaines, Morton Grove, Hinsdale, Chicago (East Side, Hegewisch, South Chicago, Portage Park, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Rogers Park, Albany Park), Schaumburg, Schiller Park and Hoffman Estates, Ill.

Robert D. Kreisman has been an active member of the Illinois and Missouri bars since 1976.