Behrens v. Raleigh Hills Hosp., Inc.

• Decision Date: 22 December 1983
• Docket Number: No. 18093,18093
• Citation: 675 P.2d 1179
• Parties: Diana BEHRENS, individually and as Guardian ad Litem of Nathan Alan Behrens, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. RALEIGH HILLS HOSPITAL, INC., Defendant and Respondent.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

Page 1179

675 P.2d 1179

Diana BEHRENS, individually and as Guardian ad Litem of Nathan Alan Behrens, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. RALEIGH HILLS HOSPITAL, INC., Defendant and Respondent.

No. 18093.

Supreme Court of Utah.

Dec. 22, 1983.

James E. Hawkes, Bob W. Warnick, Salt Lake City, for plaintiffs and appellant.

Robert F. Orton, Salt Lake City, for defendant and respondent.

STEWART, Justice:

The issue on this appeal is whether punitive damages may be awarded in a wrongful death action. The case is here on an interlocutory appeal from the trial court's refusal to permit the plaintiff to amend its complaint to seek punitive damages.

I. THE FACTS

Plaintiff's decedent, Robert Alan Behrens, was admitted to the defendant Raleigh Hills Hospital to undergo treatment for alcohol abuse. On the third day of his stay, a hospital employee allowed decedent to use a razor to shave. Instead, decedent used the razor to slash his wrists; he died four days later.

Decedent's wife, individually and on behalf of their infant son, filed this action for wrongful death seeking compensatory damages only. The jury trial resulted in a judgment for plaintiff in the amount of $100,000. However, the trial court granted defendant's motion for a new trial because of its failure to give a comparative negligence jury instruction. That ruling is not challenged.

After the motion for a new trial was granted, plaintiff moved to amend her complaint to include a claim for punitive damages. The matter was heard on oral argument, and the motion to amend was denied. Because the precise basis for that denial is not in the record, we examine first the possible procedural grounds offered as a justification for the ruling.

II. PROCEDURAL OBJECTIONS

A. Motion to Amend

Defendant argues that the motion to amend was properly denied for procedural reasons because it was not presented in writing and was not accompanied by the proposed amended complaint. Although a trial court may deny a motion to amend for a movant's failure to present a written motion and a proposed amended complaint, see Utah R.Civ.P. 7(b)(1); 3 J. Moore, Moore's Federal Practice p 15.12 (2d ed. 1983), that rule does not govern this case.

Prior to trial, plaintiff filed a written motion to amend the complaint. Plaintiff's motion included the language to be added to the complaint, i.e., "Plaintiff prays for punitive damages in the amount of $50,000." That motion was improperly denied by the trial court. The motion was renewed after the trial court granted a new trial. The defendant did not object to plaintiff's failure at that time to file a proposed complaint. Indeed, the defendant knew precisely what the issues were with respect to the motion to amend and filed a lengthy and well-researched memorandum on the issue of punitive damages. Under the circumstances, plaintiff's first motion to amend was sufficient. It was again error to deny the renewed motion.

Furthermore, this case must be viewed against the backdrop of Utah R.Civ.P. 54(c)(1), which states that "every final judgment shall grant the relief to which the party in whose favor it is rendered is entitled, even if the party has not demanded such relief in his pleadings." See also Pope v. Pope, Utah, 589 P.2d 752 (1978); Palombi v. D & C Builders, 22 Utah 2d 297, 452 P.2d 325 (1969). Cf. Motivated Management International v. Finney, Utah, 604 P.2d 467 (1979). As Professor Moore states:

Rule 15 provides liberally for amendment of pleadings and supplemental pleadings to the end that litigation may be disposed of on the merits. And Rule 54(c) continues the story by providing that, except as to a judgment by default which shall not be different in kind from or exceed the amount prayed, every other final judgment shall grant the relief to which the party in whose favor it is rendered is entitled.

While under Rule 8(a)(3), supra, every pleading setting forth a claim for relief should contain a demand for judgment, this prayer for relief constitutes no part of the pleader's cause of action; a pleading should not be dismissed for legal insufficiency unless it appears to a certainty that the claimant is entitled to no relief, legal, equitable or maritime, under any state of facts which could be proved in support of the claim, irrespective of the prayer for relief; and, except as to a judgment by default, the prayer does not limit the relief, legal, equitable or maritime, which the court may grant. [Emphasis added, footnotes omitted.]

6 J. Moore, W. Taggart & J. Wicker, Moore's Federal Practice p 54.60 at 1212-14 (2d ed. 1983).

Thus, if the plaintiff were able to adduce the necessary foundational evidence at trial, she could claim punitive damages under Rule 54(c) without a formal amendment to the pleadings. Case authorities support this proposition. In Guillen v. Kuykendall, 470 F.2d 745, 748 (5th Cir.1972) (per curiam), the court stated:

It is not necessary to claim exemplary [i.e., punitive] damages by specific denomination if the facts show that the wrong complained of was "inflicted with malice, oppression, or other like circumstances of [aggravation] ¹", ... 22 Am.Jur.2d Damages § 293.

Accord Gilbreath v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 526 F.Supp. 657 (W.D.Okl.1980) (interpreting Oklahoma law); Alexander v. Jones, 29 F.Supp. 690, 692 (E.D.Okla.1939) (same). Cf. Nolan v. Foreman, 665 F.2d 738 (5th Cir.1982).

B. Statute of Limitations

The defendant also asserts that the claim for punitive damages is a new claim for relief that is barred by the statute of limitations. However, an amendment to include damages does not import into a case a new and different cause of action. Hjorth v. Whittenburg, 121 Utah 324, 241 P.2d 907 (1952). See also Johnson v. Brinkerhoff, 89 Utah 530, 57 P.2d 1132 (1936). Even the setting forth of "an additional ground of negligence as the cause of the same injury" is not a new cause of action. Peterson v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 79 Utah 213, 221, 8 P.2d 627, 630 (1932).

Other jurisdictions have also allowed a claim for punitive damages to be added on the ground that the claim raised no new legal issues and therefore its addition did not prejudice the other party. Owen v. Superior Court, 133 Ariz. 75, 649 P.2d 278 (1982); Thomas v. Medesco, Inc., 67 F.R.D. 129 (E.D.Pa.1974); Hodnik v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 54 F.R.D. 184 (W.D.Pa.1972); Walker v. Fleming Motor Co. Inc., 195 Kan. 328, 404 P.2d 929 (1965). See also Hernandez v. Brooks, 95 N.M. 670, 625 P.2d 1187 (App.1980). Accordingly, the statute of limitation is no bar. See Rule 15(c); Peterson v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 79 Utah 213, 8 P.2d 627 (1932); Thomas v. Medesco, Inc., 67 F.R.D. 129 (E.D.Pa.1974).

Defendant also argues that denial of the motion was proper because the proposed amendment set forth additional allegations and claims outside the scope of plaintiff's notice of intent to sue, which had been filed prior to commencement of this action. A notice of intent to sue, as required by U.C.A., 1953, § 78-14-8, is not intended to be the equivalent of a complaint and need not contain every allegation and claim set forth in the complaint. The purpose of an intent to sue notice is to give the parties an opportunity to discuss, and hopefully to resolve, the potential claim before they become locked into a lawsuit. Although the notice must include "specific allegations of misconduct on the part of the prospective defendant," that requirement does not need to meet the standards required to state a claim for relief in a complaint. The parties need to give only general notice of an intent to sue and of the injuries then known and not a statement of legal theories.

In the present case, the notice cited specific allegations of the Hospital's misconduct, including failing to diagnose decedent's dangerous mental condition and allowing him to possess a razor. The proposed amendment to the complaint does not refer to new or different acts of misconduct; rather, the amendment relies upon a different legal characterization of the same conduct. Describing the defendant's conduct as negligent conduct in the notice of intent does not preclude describing it as "grossly negligent" or reckless. Nor does § 78-14-8 require that a claim for punitive damages be expressed in the notice of intent, as long as it includes "a general statement of the nature of the claim."

III. PUNITIVE DAMAGES IN WRONGFUL DEATH ACTIONS

The key substantive issue in this case is whether the Utah wrongful death statute allows for recovery of punitive damages or only permits compensatory damages. The relevant portion of U.C.A., 1953, § 78-11-7 states: "In every action under this [section] ... such damages may be given as under all the circumstances of the case may be just." Whether this provision allows for recovery of punitive damages in a wrongful death action is a question of first impression in Utah.

The common law recognized no action for the wrongful death of a human being. Lord Campbell's Act, which was enacted in England in 1846 to override the common law, created a statutory action for wrongful death. That act provided for the recovery of damages which the jury found resulted from the death. Comment, A Primer on Damages Under the Utah Wrongful Death and Survival Statutes, 1974 Utah L.Rev. 519. Although English courts have restricted recovery under that act to pecuniary losses suffered by the survivors, American courts have not ruled consistently one way or the other. Id.; 1 S. Speiser, Recovery For Wrongful Death § 3:1 at 103 (2d ed. 1975).

Most wrongful death statutes in the United States, including Utah's, were modeled after Lord Campbell's Act. 1 S. Speiser supra, § 1:9 at 29; U.C.A., 1953, § 78-11-7 (Compiler's Notes). Some American jurisdictions adopted, expressly either in their statutes or by judicial construction, the pecuniary damage limitation of the English act. 1 S. Speiser, supra, § 3:1 at 106-09; 1974 Utah L.Rev., supra, at 520. A majority of American...