Katiuzhinsky

An injured plaintiff in a tort action cannot recover more than the amount of medical expenses he or she paid or incurred, even if the reasonable value of those services might be a greater sum. (Hanif v. Housing Authority (1988) 200 Cal.App.3d 635, 641 [ 246 Cal.Rptr. 192 ] (Hanif); Nishihama v. City and County of San Francisco (2001) 93 Cal.App.4th 298, 306-307 [ 112 Cal.Rptr.2d 861 ] (Nishihama).) In both Hanif and Nishihama , the plaintiff’s medical provider accepted payment for services from a third party under a contract that the provider would accept the third party’s payment as payment in full, discharging the plaintiff from any further liability.

In this case, plaintiffs received services from medical providers who secured a lien against any recovery in plaintiffs’ personal injury actions. Some of the providers later sold plaintiffs’ accounts, at a discount, to a financial services company called MedFinManager California, L.L.C. (MedFin). The result was that the medical providers wrote off the balance but plaintiffs remained liable to MedFin for payment of their medical bills.

Relying on the rule of Hanif and Nishihama , the trial court forbade plaintiffs from…