On Aug. 14, 2014, plaintiff Michael Wright, 42, a mortuary’s operations manager, was bicycling in Northridge. He was wearing protective gear. As he was crossing a street, he struck the back of a vehicle operated by Sean Kim, who was making a left turn in front of Wright. As a result of the impact, Wright went over the back of the vehicle and allegedly injured his back and neck. Wright sued Kim, alleging that Kim was negligent in the operation of his vehicle. Kim conceded liability for the accident., After the accident, Wright claimed that he had pain in his collarbone, right shoulder, neck and back. He was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was seen in the emergency room. Wright claimed that when his back pain remained, he underwent 24 chiropractic visits from September 2014 to January 2015. He also treated with physical therapy and presented to a pain management physician one time in September 2014. He then saw an orthopedic surgeon one time in January 2015 as well as saw another orthopedic surgeon one time in March 2015. Later, Wright complained of pain again to his treating doctor at Kaiser in 2016. Plaintiff’s counsel designated all treating doctors as retained experts and only provided one doctor for deposition. As such, Judge Cary Nishimoto excluded the experts, except for the one that testified at deposition. Wright sought treatment on the eve of trial, but he did not provide records until after the discovery cutoff. The recent treatment included recommendations for epidural injections and a possible surgery. However, information about the recent treatment was also excluded at trial. As a result, plaintiff’s counsel called Wright to testify and then rested. The jury heard no medical bills or medical testimony. Wright testified that he still had pain in his back and that he missed four days of work as a result of his injury. He sought recovery of $180,000 for his past and future pain and suffering. Defense counsel argued that there was no objective findings of injury for Wright. Counsel then rested without calling any witnesses.
