When the plaintiff regained consciousness after surgery to stop nose bleeds, he was blind in one eye. He brought an action against the manufacturer of a device used in the surgery, against the hospital where the surgery was performed and against the doctor who performed the surgery. Plaintiff settled with the manufacturer for $2 million and with the hospital for $350,000. Motions for good faith settlements were granted. In the trial against the doctor, a jury awarded plaintiff $125,000 present cash value for future medical care, $331,250 for past noneconomic damages and $993,750 for future noneconomic damages. The court reduced the noneconomic damages to $250,000 pursuant, but refused to give the doctor an offset of the amounts paid by the settling defendants. The appellate court stated the issue before it as follows: “In this case, we deal with the intersection of three statutes addressing the recovery of damages: Civil Code section 3333.2,part of the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act of 1975 (MICRA), limiting recovery of noneconomic damages for medical malpractice to a total of $250,000; section 1431.2, part of the Fair Responsibility Act of 1986 adopted by the passage of Proposition 51, which provides that liability for noneconomic damages is several only, in accordance with the percentage of fault; and Code of Civil Procedure section 877, which addresses the impact of a good faith settlement on settling and nonsettling tortfeasors.” The appeals court concluded: “We find appellant was entitled to an offset as to the economic damages awarded by the jury and to a portion of the noneconomic damages, and reject respondent‘s constitutional challenges to MICRA.” The judgment was modified to reflect an offset against economic damages in the amount of $125,000 and a reduction of the noneconomic damages to $16,655. (Rashidi v. Moser (Cal. App. Second Dist., Div. 4; September 23, 2013) (As Mod. October 9, 2013) 219 Cal.App.4th 1170, [162 Cal.Rptr.3d 446].)
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