GLORIA and DENNIS EISBRENNER, Plaintiffs-Appellants and Cross-Appellees, v. WILLIAM FREDERICK STANLEY, D.O., Defendant-Appellee and Cross-Appellant; KARI ANN EISBRENNER, a minor, by and through her next friends, GLORIA and DENNIS EISBRENNER, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. WILLIAM FREDERICK STANLEY, D.O., Defendant-Appellee., 106 Mich. App. 357

Summary

The parents filed a suit for damages, alleging that the doctor had negligently failed to diagnose the mother's rubella during the pregnancy and that the child was born with rubella-caused defects. The trial court entered partial summary judgment in favor of the doctor on the child's claim, entered a jury verdict of no cause of action, and denied the parents' motion for a new trial. On appeal, the court held that the decision not to allow the child's action was affirmed because the comparison between nonexistence and deformed life was necessary but impossible to make and juries should not have been allowed to speculate on the child's damages. The court held that the trial court properly refused to dismiss the parents' cause of action and did not err by allowing them to seek damages for both medical expenses and mental distress. The court held that while the testimony regarding the contraction of measles was double hearsay, it did not affect the parents' substantial rights, nor did the ...