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Editorial: Tragic evidence that caps aren’t the answer

02/18/2004

To stem the outrageous costs of liability insurance, the government should impose caps on the amount of damages juries can award in cases of negligence. That’s the argument frequently heard these days during discussions of the medical-malpractice crisis. It’s been made before during other debates on so-called "tort reform." And it sounds just fine. Until it collides with cold reality.

Meet Natalie Robley. In January 1998, the New Jersey woman was a 27-year-old with bright plans for the future. She was to be married that summer. The invitations had already been mailed. She was driving to the Upper Darby home of her maid of honor -- they planned to go shopping for a wedding veil -- when tragedy struck.

Natalie was in a two-car collision at Church and Long lanes and Pembroke Avenue in East Lansdowne. She was left a quadriplegic and doctors said she would never walk again. Her wedding was called off and she was left facing a lifetime of pain, medical treatments and bills.

The intersection where the crash occurred had long been a source of concern for local officials. Dating to the 1970s, East Lansdowne Borough Manager Marius Russo admitted, officials were asking PennDOT for some kind of traffic controls at the site. PennDOT refused. Two months after the day that changed Natalie’s life, the state agency relented. But it still took until March 2002 to install a traffic light at the intersection.

By then, Natalie Robley had filed a lawsuit. Her case came to trial this month in Delaware County Common Pleas Court. At its end, jurors found PennDOT 50 percent responsible for the accident, and East Lansdowne 3 percent responsible. The driver of the car in which Natalie was riding, who had no insurance, was judged 32 percent responsible and the driver of the other car, who had minimal insurance, 15 percent.

The jury awarded $38.2 million in damages, the largest of its kind in Delaware County history. Jurors determined that amount was justified to cover future medical costs, lost wages, emotional distress, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, and pain and suffering.

What jurors didn’t know is that Pennsylvania has a "sovereign immunity" law that caps damage awards against state agencies and municipalities. Because of that law, Robley and her parents who care for her will collect only $250,000 from PennDOT and $500,000 from the borough of East Lansdowne - barring appeals (and East Lansdowne, at least, plans to file one).

That capped amount, minus legal costs and other fees, won’t cover a month of Natalie’s medical expenses.

"This is just a measly amount of money that is not going to help me at all," Natalie said. "What I’m trying to do is bring it to the attention of people that when you travel through Pennsylvania, you never know what can happen, and if something does happen and there’s a problem, the state and the borough won’t have to pay out the amount of money needed to take care of you.

"I want to live just like anyone else, and they have taken that away from me."

When it comes to the negligent actions by states and municipalities, then, injured citizens have little hope of redress. Do we want to extend that freedom from liability to the medical profession as well?

When someone suggests caps as the solution for the ills of the legal system, just think of Natalie Robley. And remember that sometimes the cure is deadlier than the disease.