South Dakota High Court Affirms Exclusion Of Hospital’s Apology for Adverse Outcome

A patient injured by a hospital’s failure to properly and timely diagnose his illness could not offer into evidence in a medical malpractice case statements by hospital employees apologizing for the error, a state supreme court held Feb. 1 (Ronan v. Sanford Health, S.D., 25813, 2/1/12).

The South Dakota Supreme Court, in a decision by Chief Justice David Gilbertson, said that the evidence clearly was excluded by S.D. Codified Laws §19-12-14 and that plaintiffs Kevin and Patricia Ronan alleged no facts that would have demonstrated that the evidence fell within an exception to the law.

The court ...