State Farm appeal of PIP benefits denied
In Greene v. State Farm, the defendant refused to pay contracted PIP benefits after the plaintiff suffered an alleged head injury in her fifth motor vehicle collision in four years. The jury awarded her benefits after a hotly-disputed trial, despite testimony from State Farm's hired-gun IME doctor. The Court of Appeals upheld the jury's decision, even though the injury victim's attorney inappropriately called on the jurors to take into account the Defendant's size and wealth in reaching a verdict.
The Court also concluded that the admission of rebuttal testimony from a doctor who performed a quantitative electoencephalogram (QEEG) did not meet the threshold for admission of scientific evidence, but that admitting the rebuttal testimony was "harmless error". As with many other cases reported in the web log, this decision confirms the appellate courts' reluctance to disturb a jury verdict absent manifest, substantive error.