Browning v. Advocate Health and Hospitals Corp.

Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit alleging medical malpractice and obtained a substantial jury verdict in their favor. Defendants appealed, arguing that the trial court erred in finding that the treating physicians’ discovery depositions were admissible hearsay and in allowing excerpts of physician discovery depositions to be read to the jury. The appellate court affirmed, finding that while the discovery deposition testimony was not admissible under Rule 801(d)(2)(D) because the physicians were not the defendant’s agents when they were deposed, defendants failed to establish that they were prejudiced and that the error affected the outcome of the trial. (PUCINSKI, concurring and LAVIN, dissenting)