Strong v. Underwood
Strong v. Underwood
Opinion of the Court
On July 11, 2010, Cynthia Underwood was driving her motorcycle when she collided with a sport utility vehicle driven by Katherine Strong. Mrs. Underwood and her husband, Stephen R. Underwood, sued Ms. Strong, alleging that Ms. Strong had negligently operated her vehicle, thereby causing the collision and severely injuring Mrs. Underwood. Mr. Underwood sought loss of consortium damages. The case proceeded to trial solely on the issue of liability. The jury found Ms. Strong fifty percent at fault. She raises several issues on appeal, one of which is dispositive. We agree with Ms. Strong that the trial court erred in refusing to admit a medical record containing a statement made by Mrs. Underwood to her treating physician concerning how the accident occurred. We reverse for a new trial on liability.
At trial, the parties vigorously contested liability, with each asserting the other caused the accident by crossing the road's center line. In support of her position, Ms. Strong sought to admit a medical record from one of Mrs. Underwood's treating physicians, Dr. Michael Cheatham. During a pretrial deposition, Dr. Cheatham testified that according to his medical record, he examined Mrs. Underwood the day after the accident. At that time, he recorded the following entry in the medical record:
*763Ms. Underwood is a 44-year-old white female who was the helmeted rider of a motorcycle that was involved in a crash yesterday. She states that one of the tires on her motorcycle blew, and she collided head-on with the SUV at an unknown rate of speed.
Dr. Cheatham had no independent recollection of Mrs. Underwood or his conversation with her. He agreed the statement could have been made directly to him or one of several other doctors and that it was "more likely than not" that Mrs. Underwood made the statement to a member of the trauma team. In any event, Dr. Cheatham testified that he would not normally write " 'she states' unless a patient ... verbalize[d] [the statement] to" him. The trial court excluded the statement as inadmissible hearsay, finding the source of the statement was unknown. As a result, Dr. Cheatham did not testify at trial and neither the statement nor the medical record was introduced at trial.
This Court reviews a trial court's decision on the admissibility of testimony under an abuse of discretion standard. Dorsey v. Reddy ,
Ms. Strong argues that Mrs. Underwood's statement should have been admissible as the admission of a party-opponent contained in a business record. She further argues the source of the statement was known because the medical record indicates the statement came from Mrs. Underwood. We agree.
The following hearsay exceptions to the Florida Evidence Code apply:
90.803 Hearsay exceptions; availability of declarant immaterial.- The provisions of s. 90.802 to the contrary notwithstanding, the following are not inadmissible as evidence, even though the declarant is available as a witness:
....
(6) RECORDS OF REGULARLY CONDUCTED BUSINESS ACTIVITY.-
(a) A memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, in any form, of acts, events, conditions, opinion, or diagnosis, made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity and if it was the regular practice of that business activity to make such memorandum, report, record, or data compilation, all as shown by the testimony of the custodian or other qualified witness ....
....
(18) ADMISSIONS.-A statement that is offered against a party and is:
(a) The party's own statement in either an individual or a representative capacity[.]
§ 90.803(6)(a), (18)(a), Fla. Stat. (2016).
Medical records are admissible under the business records exception. Love v. Garcia ,
Although the statement was an admission by a party-opponent and contained within a medical record, the trial court found the statement inadmissible because it believed the source of the statement was unknown. In making this finding, the trial court primarily relied on Andreaus v. Impact Pest Management, Inc. ,
In Andreaus , the plaintiff's medical records contained a statement that she slipped and fell on a puddle of water, rather than on pesticide, as she later claimed in her complaint.
We reject the Underwoods' argument that the statement was not admissible because it may have been transmitted through another member of the hospital staff to Dr. Cheatham, creating a double hearsay problem. "[A] statement is not rendered inadmissible merely because it passed through two declarants." Johnson v. State ,
We also reject the Underwoods' arguments that the statement is unsupported by corroborating evidence, untrustworthy, *765and unfairly prejudicial. The lack of corroborating evidence that the accident was caused by a tire blowout goes to the weight of the statement, not its admissibility. See, e.g. , Gore v. State ,
Having concluded the trial court erred in excluding the statement, we must determine whether the error was harmless. Error below will be deemed harmless if the beneficiary of the error can prove "that there is no reasonable possibility that the error contributed to the verdict." See Special v. W. Boca Med. Ctr. ,
As noted, liability was vigorously contested at trial, with each party claiming the other crossed the center line. Witness credibility was crucial. Had Mrs. Underwood's medical record statement been introduced, it would have called into question her trial version of the accident that Ms. Strong's vehicle crossed the road's center line, whereas she never left her lane. Accordingly, the statement goes to the heart of the controversy and the Underwoods cannot demonstrate there is no reasonable possibility the error contributed to the verdict. Had the jury heard this statement, it likely would have affected Mrs. Underwood's credibility and the credibility of her version of the accident. The exclusion of the statement, therefore, constitutes reversible error. See Ring Power Corp. ,
The medical record and Mrs. Underwood's statement fall within hearsay exceptions. There is no evidence the medical record is untrustworthy. The statement is not unfairly prejudicial, and exclusion of the statement was not harmless, given the hotly contested issue of liability. Accordingly, the trial court erred in excluding Mrs. Underwood's statement in the medical record and Ms. Strong is entitled to a *766new trial on liability.
REVERSED and REMANDED.
BERGER and GROSSHANS, JJ., concur.
The Underwoods cite Castillo v. State ,
Ms. Strong also challenges the trial court's granting of a motion in limine that excluded the investigating officer from testifying about statements made by two witnesses. In granting the motion, the trial court precluded the officer from testifying about the witnesses' statements in the context of the officer's accident investigation and his opinion about the cause of the accident. We find no error in the trial court's ruling limiting the officer's investigation testimony in this context. We note, however, that the trial court did not, and was not requested to, address use of the witnesses' statements as rebuttal or impeachment evidence, which may have been permissible pursuant to existing case law. See Stewart v. Draleaus ,
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.