Cretton v. Protestant Memorial Medical Center, Inc.

              1
NOTICE
Decision filed 02/28/07. The text of
this dec ision may be changed or
corrected prior to the filing of a
Petition for Rehea ring or the
disposition of the same.
NO. 5-05-0474
IN THE
APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS
FIFTH DISTRICT
________________________________________________________________________
CECIL V. CRETTON and CHERYL L. CRETTON, ) Appeal from the
Coadministrators of the Estate of Joyce E. ) Circuit Court of
Cretton, Deceased, ) St. Clair County.
)
Plaintiffs-Appellees, ))
v. ) No. 00-L-64
)
PROTESTANT MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER, )
INC., d/b/a Memorial Hospital of Belleville, ) Honorable
) Robert P. LeChien,
Defendant-Appellant. ) Judge, presiding.
________________________________________________________________________
JUSTICE SPOMER delivered the opinion of the court:
The defendant, Protestant Memorial Medical Center, Inc., doing business as Memorial
Hospital of Belleville, appeals the following orders of the circuit court of St. Clair County
entered against the defendant and in favor of the plaintiffs, Cecil V. Cretton and Cheryl L.
Cretton, who are the coadministrators of the estate of Joyce E. Cretton, who is deceased: the
August 14, 2003, order entering a judgment in the amount of $950,000 on a jury verdict
rendered the previous day for the plaintiffs on their survival action against the defendant; the
March 7, 2005, order awarding sanctions in the amount of $129,089.90 against the
defendant; and the July 18, 2005, order denying the defendant's motion for a judgment
notwithstanding the verdict (n.o.v.), a new trial, a remittitur, and/or the vacation of the March
7, 2005, sanctions. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the orders of the circuit court.
On February 11, 1999, Joyce Cretton, who was in the advanced stages of chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), was admitted to the defendant hospital. Although
she was initially treated in the intensive-care unit, Joyce was later transferred to the