Recent Decision regarding Recovery of Damages for Medical Expenses: Winter 2025

Yaffee v. Skeen (Third Appellate District, Case No. C097746, 11/25/2024)

This lawsuit arose out of back and neck injuries the plaintiff suffered in a “rear-end” automobile accident on June 16, 2015. He did not immediately seek treatment in an emergency room. On July 7, 2015, his back pain worsened, and he sought treatment in the UC Davis emergency department. However, he was not admitted to the hospital at that time but did require extensive medical treatment over the next several months and years. The court rejected the plaintiff’s claim that, based upon the Hospital Lien Act (which allows a hospital to recover its usual and customary services for “emergency and ongoing medical or other services”), he was entitled to recover the full amount of the hospital’s usual and customary charges for all of the services it provided throughout the years after he was discharged from the emergency department.

The court concluded the emergency and ongoing services plaintiff received for which UC Davis could assert a lien under the HLA were the services plaintiff received on July 7, 2015, until he was discharged from the emergency room to go home. The remaining services UC Davis provided were not “ongoing” to the emergency services as contemplated by the HLA. Plaintiff’s damages for the remaining services must therefore be determined under Howell v. Hamilton Meats & Provisions, Inc. (2011) 52 Cal.4th 541.

-B. Thomas French

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