Psychic’s $986,000 Award Voided; Blamed X-Ray for Loss of Powers

A jury’s award of nearly $1 million to a woman who charged that a hospital brain X-ray had destroyed her psychic powers has been overturned by a judge, who called it “grossly excessive.”

Common Pleas Judge Leon Katz ordered a new trial in the case of Judith Richardson Haimes, now a resident of Clearwater, Fla., after ruling that the $986,000 award last March was not based on the evidence.

The judge wrote in his opinion Thursday that a jury’s verdict should not be overturned unless it results from clear error or misconception.

“In determining whether this standard is met, one court remarked that, when the jury’s verdict causes the trial judge to lose his breath, temporarily, and causes him to almost fall from the bench, then it is truly shocking to judicial conscience,” Katz wrote.

“Although this court did not manifest any of the aforementioned gyrations, we nonetheless find the verdict to be so grossly excessive as to shock the court’s sense of justice,” he wrote.

Haimes, who said her psychic powers had helped police agencies solve crimes and find missing people, sued Temple University Hospital and Dr. Judith Hart, a neuroradiologist.

She contended that a diagnostic CAT scan she had undergone 10 years ago left her with chronic and disabling headaches when she sought to look into either the past or the future, preventing her from continuing practice as a psychic.

During the trial, Katz ruled Haimes had failed to prove that the CAT scan was linked to her headaches and ordered the jury to consider only whether damages were proper for alleged pain and mental anguish from the X-ray procedure, which included a dye injection.

Katz found that the jury, which made the award after less than an hour of deliberation, had disregarded his instructions on the law.

Joel Lieberman, Haimes’ attorney, could not be reached for comment.