Coon v. Med. Ctr., Inc.
Decision Date | 06 March 2017 |
Docket Number | S16G0695 |
Citation | 797 S.E.2d 828,300 Ga. 722 |
Parties | COON v. The MEDICAL CENTER, INC. |
Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Archie Irwin Grubb, II, Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C., 218 Commerce Street, P.O. Box 4160, Montgomery, Alabama 36103-4160, F. Houser Pugh, P.O. Box 2807, Columbus, Georgia 31902-2807, for Appellant.
W. Scott Henwood, Hall Booth Smith, P.C., 191 Peachtree Street, N.E., Suite 2900, Atlanta, Georgia 30303, Paul Douglas Ivey, Jr., Hall Booth Smith, P.C., PO Box 2707, 233 12th Street, Suite 500, Columbus, Georgia 31901, Mark W. Wortham, Hall Booth Smith, P.C., 1037 Front Avenue, Columbus, Georgia 31902, Lauren King Dimitri, Hall Booth Smith, P.C., 233 12th Street, Suite 500, P.O. Box 2707, Columbus, Georgia 31902, for Appellee.
Robert Alan Luskin, Goodman, McGuffey, Lindsey & Johnson, LLP, 2100 Tower Place, 3340 Peachtree Road, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia 30326-1084, James Theodore Hankins, III, Goodman McGuffey Lindsey & Johnson, 3340 Peachtree Road, NE, Suite 2100, Atlanta, Georgia 30326, for Amicus Appellee.
Amanda Rae Coon lives in Alabama but received treatment from a hospital owned by The Medical Center, Inc. in Georgia. After the hospital mishandled the remains of her stillborn baby, Coon filed this lawsuit. Among other claims, she sought to recover damages for the negligent infliction of emotional distress. The trial court ultimately entered an order granting summary judgment to the hospital. The court applied Georgia's common-law "physical impact rule" to reject Coon's negligent infliction of emotional distress claim, rather than applying case law from the Alabama courts that allows such claims based on the mishandling of human remains. Coon appealed, and the Court of Appeals affirmed, although the seven judges disagreed about the choice-of-law analysis. See Coon v. Medical Center, Inc. , 335 Ga.App. 278, 780 S.E.2d 118 (2015).
We granted Coon's petition for certiorari primarily to review the Court of Appeals' analysis of the choice-of-law issue. The principal opinion of that court held that Georgia law governs Coon's claims based on the public policy exception to the rule of lex loci delicti for choosing which state's law applies to a tort claim. See id. at 282-283, 780 S.E.2d 118. In dissent, Presiding Judge Barnes disagreed about the application of that exception. See id. at 288-291, 780 S.E.2d 118. We conclude that Judge McMillian's special concurrence identified the choice-of-law rule that actually applies in this context: where a claim in a Georgia lawsuit is governed by the common law, and the common law is also in force in the other state, as it is in Alabama, the common law as determined by Georgia's courts will control. See id. at 286-287, 780 S.E.2d 118. Because the Court of Appeals reached the right result, we affirm its judgment.
1. (a) The pertinent facts—when the evidence in the record is viewed in the light most favorable to Coon as the party opposing summary judgment—and the procedural history of the case in the trial court are recounted in the Court of Appeals principal opinion as follows:
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