Texas PJC Malpractice 2022

PJC 50.7

M EDICAL M ALPRACTICE —D EFINITIONS , I NSTRUCTIONS & Q UESTIONS

PJC 50.7 Evidence of Bad Result A finding of negligence may not be based solely on evidence of a bad result to the claimant in question, but a bad result may be considered by you, along with other evidence, in determining the issue of negligence. You are the sole judges of the weight, if any, to be given to this kind of evidence. COMMENT When to use. The above instruction shall be added to the definition of “negli gence” for any action on a health care liability claim. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 74.303(e)(2). Submission with inferential rebuttal instructions. Use of this instruction does not necessarily preclude the submission of inferential rebuttal instructions. See, e.g., PJC 3.4 (unavoidable accident), PJC 50.4 (new and independent cause), and PJC 50.5 (sole proximate cause). In Gunn v. McCoy , 554 S.W.3d 645 (Tex. 2018), for example, the Texas Supreme Court considered the propriety of an unavoidable-accident instruc tion in a health care liability case where the jury charge included the statutorily man dated bad-result instruction, and the court had “little hesitation in determining that the [unavoidable-accident] instruction would have been proper.” Gunn , 554 S.W.3d at 676. The court noted that a bad-result instruction and an unavoidable-accident instruc tion deal with different elements of a health care liability claim: a bad-result instruc tion speaks to the question of negligence, whereas an unavoidable-accident instruction speaks to the element of causation. Therefore, the presence of one instruction does not and cannot render the other unnecessary or irrelevant. Gunn , 554 S.W.3d at 676 n.19. However, as with any jury instruction, the trial court has discretion to decide what should be submitted, and thus, a determination that the unavoidable-accident instruc tion is proper does not render it mandatory. Gunn , 554 S.W.3d at 676. For an unavoid able-accident jury instruction, see the current edition of State Bar of Texas, Texas Pattern Jury Charges—General Negligence, Intentional Personal Torts & Workers’ Compensation PJC 3.4.

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