Over at Reverse and Render, Hilaree Casada has written about a new issue in the wake of Haygood v. Escabedo, No. 09-0377.

In Haygood, the Court concluded that Texas law only allowed the recovery of actual medical expenses, not the inflated amount that hospitals might bill insurers expecting it to be reduced. Along the way, it concluded that evidence of this inflated bills was inadmissible as not even probative of the true amount.

One remaining question is whether the trial court can cure Haygood problems (say, inadmissible evidence in the form of inflated bills) by reducing the jury’s damage award to the proper amount. The Amarillo Court concluded, in a divided decision, that reversal was required even though the trial court’s judgment was for the right amount.

Hilaree’s post is here: “41.0105 — post-judgment reduction does not cure error”. The Amarillo Court opinions are here: Majority (Hancock, J.); Concurrence (Pirtie, J.); Dissent (Quinn, C.J.).