Chapman By and Through Chapman v. Primary Children's Hosp.
| Decision Date | 27 December 1989 |
| Docket Number | I-V,860392,Nos. 860230,I-X,s. 860230 |
| Citation | 784 P.2d 1181 |
| Parties | Jennifer CHAPMAN, By and Through her guardian Teresa CHAPMAN, Robert Chapman and Teresa Chapman, individually, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. PRIMARY CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL, a hospital organized to do business in the state of Utah; Primary Children's Medical Center, a hospital organized to do business in the state of Utah; Intermountain Health Care, a Utah corporation, dba Primary Children's Hospital; IHC Hospitals, Inc., a Utah corporation dba Primary Children's Hospital; The Health Services Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a former or present Utah corporation dba Primary Children's Hospital; Garth Myer, M.D.; L. George Veasy, M.D.; Karen Bowman, R.N.; Scott Wetzel Company, a Utah corporation; The Home Group, Inc., a foreign corporation; John Does; and Black Corporation(Resignated I.H.C., Hospitals, Inc., et al.), Defendants and Appellees. Jennifer CHAPMAN, By and Through her guardian Teresa CHAPMAN, Robert Chapman and Teresa Chapman, individually, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. SCOTT WETZEL COMPANY, a Utah corporation; The Home Group, Inc., a foreign corporation; Primary Children's Hospital, a hospital organized to do business in the state of Utah, et al., Defendants and Appellees. |
| Court | Utah Supreme Court |
Kathryn Collard, Salt Lake City, P. Richard Meyer, Robert N. Williams, Jackson, Wyo., for appellants.
Gary B. Ferguson, Gary D. Stott, Michael L. Schwab, Salt Lake City, for Garth Myer.
B. Lloyd Poelman, David B. Erickson, Salt Lake City, for Veasy, Bowman, and hosp. entities.
Stephen B. Nebeker, Anthony B. Quinn, Paul D. Newman, Thomas A. Quinn, Salt Lake City, for Scott Wetzel Co. and The Home Group, Inc.
This appeal challenges three separate summary judgments granted to defendants in the trial court. 1 Our review is restricted to the question of whether summary judgment was properly granted; we do not address plaintiffs' underlying negligence claims.
Rule 56(c) of the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure provides that summary judgment may be granted "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Our cases make clear that "in reviewing a summary judgment, this Court will view the facts in a light most favorable to the party opposing the motion and will allow the summary judgment to stand only if the movant is entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law on the undisputed facts." Brower v. Brown, 744 P.2d 1337, 1338 (Utah 1987) (quoting Barlow Society v. Commercial Security Bank, 723 P.2d 398, 399 (Utah 1986) (citations omitted)).
Plaintiff Jennifer Chapman was born on August 10, 1972. During the first five months of her life, she experienced cardiac and respiratory difficulties for which she was treated in an Ogden hospital. In early 1973, her Ogden physicians referred her to the care of defendant Dr. L. George Veasy at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City. Dr. Veasy determined that Jennifer was suffering from a heart problem. Another physician performed surgery on Jennifer to install a "Waterston shunt," a device used for the purpose of increasing blood flow between the heart and lungs. That device did not function as expected, and on February 28, 1973, a second operation was performed to correct the shunt. Several hours after the second surgery, Jennifer experienced convulsions, followed shortly by cardiac arrest. The episode left Jennifer tragically impaired, with permanent, incapacitating mental and physical disabilities.
There is no dispute between the parties as to the preceding facts. However, Jennifer's parents (also plaintiffs in this action) filed affidavits in which they additionally alleged irregularities in Jennifer's post-operative care. The Chapmans stated that they visited Jennifer as soon as she recovered from the anesthesia administered for the second operation. A few minutes after this visit, Mrs. Chapman returned to the child's room, where she found one of the nurses busy with the heart monitor attached to Jennifer's chest. The nurse told Mrs. Chapman that the monitor had sounded its alarm and that she could not get the machine properly set. Mrs. Chapman's affidavit states that the nurse was preparing to leave the room to find someone to help her adjust the heart monitor when Mrs. Chapman asked her whether the anesthetic was making Jennifer look peculiar. The nurse examined Jennifer, determined that she was in cardiac arrest, and summoned help. Jennifer survived the incident, but was left with severe brain damage.
The Chapmans maintain that some time later they consulted Dr. Veasy to determine whether he believed Jennifer's Ogden physicians had been negligent in failing to refer Jennifer to Dr. Veasy's care more promptly so that her condition might not have deteriorated so seriously. They allege that Dr. Veasy told them that tests had been performed which showed that Jennifer's injuries had resulted from a blood clot or blood clots flooding her brain and that the incident was unrelated to anyone's negligence and could not have been avoided. The record reveals that despite Dr. Veasy's alleged attempts to discourage them, the Chapmans nevertheless filed suit against the Ogden physicians in October 1975. That suit was later dismissed without prejudice on motion of the Chapmans' attorney.
The Chapmans allege that because of Dr. Veasy's representations that Jennifer's injuries could not have been avoided, they were prevented from discovering that the true cause of her injuries had not been determined or even adequately investigated. They claim that because of their trust and confidence in Dr. Veasy, they had no reason to suspect that his statements to them were unsupported until they received Jennifer's medical records in July 1984. The records did not show that any tests had been performed. The Chapmans stated that when they confronted Dr. Veasy with the hospital records, he admitted that tests had never been conducted and that his previous statements reflected only his assumptions about the cause of Jennifer's injuries. According to Mr. Chapman's affidavit, a second medical opinion obtained in January 1985 revealed for the first time that Jennifer's injuries were most likely caused by oxygen deprivation resulting from delay in treating Jennifer's cardiac arrest.
The Chapmans' suit, filed in October 1985, named nine individual and corporate defendants who may be divided into three groups, based on the allegations against them. The first group of defendants (hereinafter "the hospital defendants") includes Dr. Veasy, Primary Children's Hospital and its parent corporations, and the nurse the Chapmans claim was originally negligent. The second group consists of the Scott Wetzel Company, which was hired to investigate accident claims against the hospital, and its parent corporation, The Home Group, an insurance company. The Chapmans base their charges against these defendants on statements allegedly made by a Scott Wetzel representative which the Chapmans claim amounted to fraudulent concealment of medical malpractice. Finally, the Chapmans sued Dr. Myer, another hospital physician who became involved in Jennifer's treatment shortly after her cardiac arrest. The Chapmans allege that Dr. Myer was negligent in failing to provide adequate care. We will address separately the summary judgments granted to defendants.
We treat first the question of whether the Chapmans' lawsuit was filed in a timely manner under the statute of limitations in Utah's Health Care Malpractice Act. Under that statute, if plaintiffs were simply alleging that misconduct on the part of health care practitioners produced Jennifer's injuries, their suit would appear to be barred. The statute provides:
No malpractice action against a health care provider may be brought unless it is commenced within two years after the plaintiff or patient discovers, or through the use of reasonable diligence should have discovered[,] the injury, whichever first occurs, but not to exceed four years after the date of the alleged act, omission, neglect or occurrence....
Utah Code Ann. § 78-14-4(1) (1987) (emphasis added). However, plaintiffs' allegations of fraudulent concealment bring their causes of action under section 78-14-4(1)(b), which establishes the statutory bar at one year after "the plaintiff or patient discovers, or through the use of reasonable diligence, should have discovered[,] the fraudulent concealment, whichever first occurs." With respect to the hospital defendants, we find that the Chapmans' assertions, taken as a whole, give rise to genuine questions of material fact regarding the existence of fraudulent concealment.
In reaching this conclusion, we interpret the "discovery of fraudulent concealment" provision of the statute as incorporating discovery of legal injury as well as discovery of fraudulent concealment. This Court defined "legal injury" in Foil v. Ballinger, 601 P.2d 144 (Utah 1979), where we considered the requirement under the Health Care Malpractice Act that a suit for medical malpractice must be commenced within two years after discovery of a patient's injury. The plaintiff in that case filed suit four years after her doctor negligently administered anesthesia. She did not dispute that she had suffered physical disabilities for more than two years before she filed suit, but claimed that she had not discovered evidence that her doctor's negligence had caused her injuries until three years after she had left his care. We held that, for purposes of that statute, "the two-year provision does not commence to run until the injured person knew or should have known that he had sustained an injury and that the injury was caused by negligent action." Id. at 148 (emphasis added)....
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