Ingraham v. United States
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
808 F.2d 1075 (5th Cir. 1987)
Air Force surgeons committed malpractice in two separate cases, leaving Dwight Ingraham with permanent spinal injuries (a $1,264,000 award) and causing severe brain damage to Jocelyn Bonds's infant daughter Stephanie (awards of over $3.4 million to Stephanie and $750,000 to Bonds); both procedures occurred after Texas's Medical Liability and Insurance Improvement Act capped malpractice damages at $500,000, but the government never raised the cap as a defense during either trial, instead invoking it for the first time in post-trial motions seeking to reduce the awards, which the trial court denied.
Whether an affirmative defense, such as a statutory damages cap, must be pleaded before judgment is entered or else is waived.