Corenbaum v. Lampkin: Court of Appeal Slams the Howell Door on Personal Injury Plaintiffs

The Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Three filed its decision in Corenbaum v. Lampkin, B236227, on April 30, 2013. The decision dealt personal injury plaintiffs a serious blow, closing the door on two potential openings left by the Supreme Court’s Howell v Hamilton Meats case. In Howell, the Supreme Court limited personal injury plaintiffs to recovering the amount of past medical bills that were actually paid or owing and found the amount of the charges irrelevant and inadmissible for purposes of establishing recoverable economic damages for past medical expenses. Howell left open the issue of whether the charged amounts were relevant and admissible to establish something else, like emotional distress damages or future medical care. Thanks to the Second Appellate District, the open door is now closed. At least for the time being. We will continue to follow this case as review will likely be sought, given the amicus briefing on the plaintiff’s side.

The Important Points of Corenbaum:

1. Experts will now be barred from relying upon the billed (but not paid) amounts of past medical expenses when giving opinions about the amount of future medical expenses. Billed amounts for past medical expenses are not relevant in determining future medical expenses, or for any other purpose.

2. Evidence of billed (but not paid) past medical expenses is not relevant in determining the amount of non-economic damage suffered by the plaintiff. This was one of the areas left open by Howell. The Corenbaum court seems to close it by concluding that the billed amount of past medical expenses “is not an accurate measure of the value of medical services” and therefore is not relevant in determining non-economic damages.

3. Corenbaum expressly held that it was prejudicial error for the trial court to admit the amount of the billed (but not paid) medical expenses. It would now seem to be highly unlikely that any trial court will admit the billed medical expenses for any purpose.

2013-05-03T01:00:44+00:00