Fagocki Ex Rel. Johnson v. Algonquin/Lake-In-The-Hills Fire Protection District

POSNER, Circuit Judge.

This is a suit for medical malpractice, governed, so far as relates to the appeals, by Illinois law. A jury awarded the plaintiff $1 million. Both parties appeal — the defendant arguing that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law, the plaintiff arguing that he was entitled to a larger damages award. The plaintiffs appeal is academic on the view we take of the case.

Shirley Johnson, a woman in her fifties weighing 300 pounds, had a severe allergic reaction to peanuts while eating at a Chinese restaurant. Her husband drove her to the nearby Provena Immediate Care…