Appellate Court Upholds Jury Verdict For The Defendant

David J. Robertson recently obtained an appellate victory in Farrell v. Johnson & Johnson, 184 Conn. App. 685 (2018) when the Connecticut Appellate Court affirmed a defendant’s verdict.

In this case the plaintiff claimed that a surgeon had failed to properly inform her of the risks associated with a vaginal mesh product that was to be surgically implanted.  Heidi Cilano and Nancy Marini obtained a defendant’s verdict when a Waterbury, Connecticut jury rejected all of the plaintiff’s claims.

The plaintiff thereafter presented several arguments on appeal in an attempt to overturn the verdict.  The Appellate Court disagreed with each argument.  It found that the trial judge had not abused his discretion by allowing cross-examination of the plaintiff at trial concerning details of her retainer agreement and also that he had correctly sustained a hearsay objection to various medical journal articles that the plaintiff had sought to offer in evidence.  As to the charge on the law, the Appellate Court found that it was proper for the trial judge to not have charged the jury on an innocent misrepresentation theory.  It also rejected the plaintiff’s argument that the trial judge had erred in the language that had been used the jury charge.

This was a particularly satisfying appellate result, as it upheld a hard earned trial victory.