Doe v. Pharmacia & Upjohn Co.
Decision Date | 11 August 2005 |
Docket Number | Misc. No. 13 |
Citation | 388 Md. 407,879 A.2d 1088 |
Parties | Jane DOE v. PHARMACIA & UPJOHN COMPANY, INC. |
Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Stephen B. Mercer (Rene Sandler of Sandler & Mercer, P.C., Rockville; Thomas Mack of the University of the District of Columbia, Washington, DC), on brief, for appellant.
Stephen E. Marshall (Paul F. Strain, Mitchell Y. Mirviss and Mark D. Maneche of Venable, LLP, Baltimore), on brief, for appellee.
Argued before BELL, C.J., RAKER, WILNER, CATHELL, HARRELL, BATTAGLIA and GREENE, JJ.
In this Certified Question case, pursuant to the Maryland Uniform Certification of Questions of Law Act, Maryland Code (1974, 2002 Repl.Vol., 2004 Cum.Supp.), §§ 12-601 through 12-613 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, and Maryland Rule 8-305, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has certified the following questions of Maryland law:
Our answer to both of these questions shall be NO.1
We recite the facts as set out in the Certification Order.
Jane Doe filed a tort action in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County against Pharmacia & Upjohn Company, Inc. ("Pharmacia"). Pharmacia removed the case to the United States District Court for the District of Maryland and subsequently filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to Fed. Rule Civ. Pro. 12(b)(6). Ms. Doe amended her complaint to allege nine claims, including five claims sounding in negligence.2 Pharmacia moved to dismiss the amended complaint. Following a hearing, the District Court dismissed the complaint with prejudice.
Doe appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. On appeal, Doe contended that the District Court erred in holding that under Maryland law Pharmacia did not owe her a duty of care. The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit certified the questions of law to this Court.
Ms. Doe argues before this Court that Pharmacia owed her a duty of care as the spouse of an employee who had a foreseeable risk of contracting HIV from her husband. Pharmacia should have known, Ms. Doe contends, that Mr. Doe was or could have been infected with the HIV Pharmacia manufactured and that he risked transmitting the disease to his wife. Doe also contends that Pharmacia was morally blameworthy in manufacturing a legal human pathogen for commercial purposes and in failing to inform Mr. Doe that he was infected. Finally, Ms. Doe claims that the interests of society in protecting public health and limiting the spread of disease are furthered by imposing a duty of care on Pharmacia, the entity in a position to prevent further contamination and spread of disease.
Pharmacia maintains that it did not owe a duty of care to Ms. Doe. Pharmacia argues that the relationship between it and Ms. Doe, the wife of its employee, is too attenuated for the company to be burdened with a tort duty. In response to Ms. Doe's position, Pharmacia notes that foreseeability alone is not sufficient to establish a legal duty. Pharmacia argues further that if it were to owe a duty of care to Ms. Doe, then it would owe a duty to an indeterminate number of people, stretching tort duty beyond manageable bounds.
Ms. Doe's causes of action all sound in negligence. In Maryland, to state a claim of negligence, a party must allege and prove facts demonstrating "(1) that the defendant was under a duty to protect the plaintiff from injury, (2) that the defendant breached that duty, (3) that the plaintiff suffered actual injury or loss, and (4) that the loss or injury proximately resulted from the defendant's breach of the duty." Dehn v. Edgecombe, 384 Md. 606, 619, 865 A.2d 603, 611 (2005); Horridge v. Social Services, 382 Md. 170, 182, 854 A.2d 1232, 1238 (2004); Patton v. USA Rugby, 381 Md. 627, 635-36, 851 A.2d 566, 570 (2004). Ordinarily, we begin our...
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