Brocail v. Detroit Tigers, Inc.

• Decision Date: 03 April 2008
• Docket Number: No. 14-06-00557-CV.,14-06-00557-CV.
• Citation: 268 S.W.3d 90
• Parties: Douglas K. BROCAIL, Appellant, v. DETROIT TIGERS, INC., Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

268 S.W.3d 90

Douglas K. BROCAIL, Appellant, v. DETROIT TIGERS, INC., Appellee.

No. 14-06-00557-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas, Houston (14th Dist.).

April 3, 2008.

Rehearing Overruled September 25, 2008.

Bruce E. Ramage, Levon G. Hovnatanian, Thomas W. Pirtle, Michael Jude Lowenberg, Dale Jefferson, Houston, TX, for appellants.

Jeffrey Stewart Davis, Peter Scaff, Houston, TX, for appellees.

Panel consists of Justices YATES, FOWLER, and GUZMAN.

OPINION

EVA M. GUZMAN, Justice.

In this case, a major league baseball player for the Detroit Tigers (the "Club") sued the Club for injuries to his pitching arm. The Club was granted summary judgment on the grounds, inter alia, that the player's claims were barred by the federal Labor-Management Relations Act, the Michigan Workers Disability Compensation Act, and Michigan's statute of frauds. We affirm.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Appellant Douglas Brocail is a professional relief pitcher and a union member of the Major League Baseball Players Association. As such, his employment agreements with major league baseball teams ("Clubs") are subject to a collective bargaining agreement ("CBA") negotiated between the players and the member Clubs. This case concerns alleged acts or omissions that occurred or began during the 2000 baseball season, when Brocail was employed by appellee, the Detroit Tigers, Inc.

A. The Employment Documents

Pursuant to the terms of the CBA, Players and Clubs are required to execute a specific form of a standard contract (the Uniform Player's Contract or "UPC") when entering into an employment agreement. Under the UPC governing Brocail's employment by the Club, he received a $600,000 signing bonus, a salary of $900,000 for the 2000 season, and a guaranteed salary of $2 million for the 2001 season. In section 6(a) of the UPC, the parties agreed that Brocail's contract could be assigned to any other baseball clubs. In section 6(b), Brocail agreed that, "should the Club contemplate an assignment of this contract to another Club or Clubs, the Club's physician may furnish to the physicians and officials of such other Club or Clubs all relevant medical information relating to" Brocail. Brocail further agreed to "accept, abide by and comply with all provisions of the Major League Agreement, the Major League Rules, and the Rules or Regulations of the League of which the Club is a member...."¹ These provisions included League Regulation 2, which provides as follows:

The Player, when requested by the Club, must submit to a complete physical examination at the expense of the Club, and if necessary to treatment by a regular physician or dentist in good standing.... Disability directly resulting from injury sustained in the course and within the scope of his employment under this contract shall not impair the right of the Player to receive his full salary for the period of such disability or for the season in which the injury was sustained (whichever period is shorter), together with the reasonable medical and hospital expenses incurred by reason of the injury and during the term of this contract or for a period of up to two years from the date of initial treatment for such injury, whichever period is longer, but only upon the express prerequisite conditions that (a) written notice of such injury, including the time, place, cause and nature of the injury, is served upon and received by the Club within twenty days of the sustaining of said injury and (b) the Club shall have the right to designate the doctors and hospitals furnishing such medical and hospital services. Failure to give such notice shall not impair the rights of the Player, as herein set forth, if the Club has actual knowledge of such injury. All workmen's compensation payments received by the Player as compensation for loss of income for a specific period during which the Club is paying him in full, shall be paid over by the Player to the Club. Any other disability may be ground for suspending or terminating this contract.

The parties also included "Supplemental Agreements" in the UPC, such as the following:

The Club and the Player covenant that this contract, the Basic Agreement and the Agreement Re Major League Baseball Players Benefit Plan effective April 1, 1996 and applicable supplements thereto fully set forth all understandings and agreements between them, and agree that no other understandings or agreements, whether heretofore or hereafter made, shall be valid, recognizable, or of any effect whatsoever, unless expressly set forth in a new or supplemental contract executed by the Player and the Club (acting by its President or such other officer as shall have been thereunto duly authorized by the President or Board of Directors as evidenced by a certificate filed of record with the League President and Commissioner) and complying with the Major League Rules.

B. Agreement to Provide Medical Services

The Club represents that under an "Agreement to Provide Medical Services" to the Club, the Henry Ford Center for Athletic Medicine (the "Center") agreed to select and provide well-qualified medical doctors to act as "team physicians" in exchange for a fixed annual fee.² The Center and the Club further agreed that such physicians would remain employees of the Center, and that the "[a]greement is intended solely for the benefit of the Parties hereto and shall not be deemed to create any rights in any other person or entity." The Center designated Dr. Terrence Lock, a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon, to act as one of the team physicians.

C. Injury and Treatment While Employed by the Tigers

On June 14, 2000 in Detroit, Michigan, Brocail began to complain of pain and inflammation in his right elbow. A follow-up injury report contained the notation that an x-ray performed the same day revealed spurring and new bone formation at the medial epicondyle. Another note entered two days later records that, per Dr. Lock, Brocail had "spurring with inflammation medial epicondyle," but the ligaments and tendons were intact. An injury report also records that Dr. Lock examined Brocail again on June 28, 2000, and Brocail was still tender but "getting better," and physicians would "consider CT if [the pain] persist[ed.]" Brocail was examined and x-rayed again on July 10, 2000.

After pitching on August 18, 2000, Brocail experienced increased medial soreness and mild swelling. He was placed on the disabled list; had additional x-rays on August 21; and was examined by Dr. Failla, another physician employed by the Center, on August 22, 2000. The following day, Brocail sought a second opinion from Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Alabama. The Club paid for Brocail's consultation with Dr. Andrews.

Brocail returned to Michigan, and at the beginning of September 2000, he was removed from the disabled list. After he practiced pitching on September 6 or 7, 2000, he was again restricted from throwing, and additional tests were performed on September 19, 2000.

On September 22, 2000, Dr. Kyle Anderson, another of the Center's physicians, performed arthroscopic surgery on Brocail's elbow. Dr. Anderson noted "very significant spur formation" and removed two loose bone fragments. The sutures were removed on September 29, 2000, and Brocail was placed on the 60-day disabled list. Brocail decided to return to his home in Missouri City, Texas while recuperating from surgery, and he received rehabilitation services in the neighboring city of Sugar Land.³ He was removed from the disabled list in the first half of November 2000, and on or about December 11, 2000, the Club traded Brocail to the Houston Astros. Brocail's medical bills through December 20, 2000 were paid by the Club's worker's compensation insurance carrier.

D. Injury and Treatment While Employed by the Astros

On April 4, 2001, Brocail heard a loud pop in his right elbow while pitching in Texas. He played in four more "rehabilitation outings," then consulted Dr. Thomas Mehlhoff in Houston on April 17, 2001. He was diagnosed with a full tear of the medial collateral ligament and a partial tear of the flexor tendon. He subsequently had surgery in Houston to reconstruct the medial collateral ligament. Due to the long recovery time from the surgery, Brocail did not continue to pitch for the Astros. The Astros paid Brocail's 2001 salary, but when his contract expired at the end of that season, it was not renewed. Brocail was not paid a salary for the 2002 and 2003 seasons. According to Brocail, he returned to pitching for the Texas Rangers in 2004.

E. Brocail's Allegations

On September 20, 2002, Brocail sued his Michigan and Texas health care providers. In addition, he sued the Club for negligence, fraud, fraudulent concealment, fraudulent inducement, negligent misrepresentation, gross negligence, and breach of contract. According to Brocail, the Club "encouraged and/or directed him to seek treatment from team personnel that did not possess the expertise, skill, training, experience, ability, competence and/or knowledge to properly diagnose and treat an elbow injury sustained by a major league baseball pitcher...." Brocail further alleged that the Club encouraged or directed him to undergo treatment that would not cure his injury and failed to (a) establish policies and procedures for the treatment of its players, (b) follow team physicians' orders, (c) fully disclose the true extent of his condition and his fitness to play baseball, (d) use reasonable care to protect his health and investment, (e) fully advise him of the adverse effects of continued medical and rehabilitative treatment, (f) advise him of options concerning his condition, (g) perform appropriate examinations, and (h) advise the Houston Astros of the true extent of his ability to play baseball. In addition, he contends the Club was negligent in hiring team personnel. Brocail also pleaded the discovery rule, agency, ostensible agency, agency by estoppel, equitable...