Foster v. Traul

• Decision Date: 12 September 2005
• Docket Number: No. 30052.,30052.
• Citation: 141 Idaho 890,120 P.3d 278
• Parties: Frank Lane FOSTER and Edith Foster, husband and wife, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. John B. TRAUL, M.D., John Tatham, CRNA, Anesthesia Associates of Pocatello, P.A., and Pocatello Regional Medical Center, Defendants-Respondents.
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

Page 278

120 P.3d 278

141 Idaho 890

Frank Lane FOSTER and Edith Foster, husband and wife, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. John B. TRAUL, M.D., John Tatham, CRNA, Anesthesia Associates of Pocatello, P.A., and Pocatello Regional Medical Center, Defendants-Respondents.

No. 30052.

Supreme Court of Idaho, Boise, March 2005 Term.

July 21, 2005.

Rehearing Denied September 12, 2005.

Lowell N. Hawkes, Chtd., Pocatello, for appellants. Lowell N. Hawkes argued.

Quane, Smith, LLP, Boise, and Racine, Olson, Nye, Budge & Bailey, Chartered, Pocatello, for respondents Tatam, Traul & Anesthesia Associates. Matthew F. McColl argued.

Dalling & Dalling, Pocatello, for respondent Pocatello Regional Medical Center.

BURDICK, Justice.

Frank Lane Foster sued Pocatello Regional Medical Center (PRMC) and medical service providers, alleging medical negligence and lack of informed consent. Foster appeals from a district court's grant of summary judgment on both counts in favor of the Defendants. We affirm in part and vacate in part, remanding for further proceedings.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Immediately after undergoing back surgery at PRMC in December of 1998, Foster discovered he had lost all vision in his right eye, and suffered from reduced vision in his left eye. His condition was later diagnosed as posterior ischemic optic neuropathy. Foster filed a petition for a prelitigation screening panel. Following its investigation the panel issued a written report, and several months later Foster brought the present action in Bannock County District Court.

The defendants named in Foster's complaint were Dr. John B. Traul, an anesthesiologist; Anesthesia Associates of Pocatello, P.A., (Anesthesia Associates) to which Dr. Traul was affiliated; John Tatham, a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist; and PRMC. Tatham and Dr. Traul had provided anesthesia services during Foster's back surgery.

Tatham and Anesthesia Associates filed a motion to dismiss, asserting the statute of limitations had run on Foster's claims against them. After a hearing the district court granted Tatham's motion to dismiss, but ruled that Anesthesia Associates remained potentially liable as Dr. Traul's employer. No appeal was taken from that order.

Dr. Traul and PRMC moved for summary judgment. In addition to deposition testimony, the Defendants' motion was supported by affidavits from Dr. Traul and Cindy Richardson, R.N. In opposition to the motion Foster submitted an affidavit from Dr. John Patton, an anesthesiologist, seeking to establish that the Defendants negligently breached the applicable standard of care.

The Defendants filed a motion to strike and an objection to the Patton affidavit, asserting among other grounds that Dr. Patton had failed to demonstrate actual knowledge of the standard of care applicable to anesthesiology as practiced in Pocatello, Idaho, that Dr. Patton had not shown an adequate foundation to testify concerning neurosurgery or ophthalmology, and that Dr. Patton improperly relied upon the inadmissible report of the prelitigation screening panel.

The district court struck the Patton affidavit on the grounds that Dr. Patton had relied in part on the inadmissible prelitigation screening panel report. The court also found that Dr. Patton failed to establish the necessary foundation to testify as to matters of causation or the standard of care as it related to the PRMC nursing staff. Without the affidavit Foster had presented no expert testimony alleging a breach of the applicable standard of care. On that basis the district court granted the motion for summary judgment and extinguished Foster's claims against all parties. Dr. Patton submitted a second affidavit, and Foster moved for reconsideration of the decision to strike the Patton affidavits and to grant summary judgment. After a further hearing the motion for reconsideration was denied.

Foster filed a timely appeal that is now before this Court.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

In reviewing a ruling on a summary judgment motion, this Court employs the same standard as that used by the district court. Sprinkler Irrigation Co. v. John Deere Ins., 139 Idaho 691, 695, 85 P.3d 667, 671 (2004). Summary judgment is appropriate "if the pleadings, depositions, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving part is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." I.R.C.P. 56(c). "Judgment shall be granted to the moving party if the nonmoving party fails to make a showing sufficient to establish an essential element to the party's case." McColm-Traska v. Baker, 139 Idaho 948, 950-51, 88 P.3d 767, 769-70 (2004). "All disputed facts are to be construed liberally in favor of the non-moving party, and all reasonable inferences that can be drawn from the record are to be drawn in favor of the non-moving party." Sprinkler Irrigation Co., 139 Idaho at 695-96, 85 P.3d at 671-72.

III. ANALYSIS

A. Rule 56 Does Not Require The Moving Party To Set Forth Specific Facts Negating The Non-Moving Party's Claims.

Foster contends a defendant moving for summary judgment must present supporting affidavits setting forth specific facts demonstrating there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. Foster argues that if such specific facts are not shown by the moving party, the party opposing summary judgment has no burden to set forth facts showing there is a genuine issue for trial.

Foster alleges the affidavits of Dr. Traul and PRMC Director of Nursing Richardson were "fact-deficient" and conclusory because the affidavits asserted the treatment provided to Foster complied with the applicable standard of care without setting forth the specifics of that standard or how it was followed. As a result, Foster maintains, the parties moving for summary judgment failed to allege facts sufficient to require him to respond with a factual showing of his own.

The burden of showing there is no genuine issue of material fact rests with the party moving for summary judgment. Smith v. Meridian Joint Sch. Dist. No. 2, 128 Idaho 714, 719, 918 P.2d 583, 588 (1996). The movant must present "evidence" establishing the absence of a genuine issue of material fact before the burden to come forward with evidence shifts to the non-moving party. Id.; Thomson v. Idaho Ins. Agency Inc., 126 Idaho 527, 531, 887 P.2d 1034, 1038 (1994); Thompson v. Pike, 122 Idaho 690, 697-98, 838 P.2d 293, 300-01 (1992). "[I]f a party moving for summary judgment raises issues in his motion but then fails to provide any evidence showing a lack of any genuine issue of material fact with respect to those issues, the nonmoving party has no burden to respond with supporting evidence." Thomson v. Idaho Ins. Agency, Inc., 126 Idaho at 531, 887 P.2d at 1038.

The plaintiff in a medical malpractice action must demonstrate by the use of expert medical testimony that the defendant negligently failed to meet the applicable standard of health care as it existed at the time and place of the alleged negligence. Dulaney v. St. Alphonsus, 137 Idaho 160, 164, 45 P.3d 816, 820 (2002). Here, Foster needed to demonstrate a breach of the standard of care as an essential element of his medical negligence claim. Dunlap By and Through Dunlap v. Garner, 127 Idaho 599, 604, 903 P.2d 1296, 1301 (1994). "[A] complete failure of proof concerning an essential element of the nonmoving party's case necessarily renders all other facts immaterial." McGilvray v. Farmers New World Life Ins. Co., 136 Idaho 39, 42, 28 P.3d 380, 383 (2001) (quoting Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2552, 91 L.Ed.2d 265, 273 (1986)).

The requirement found in Idaho caselaw that a party moving for summary judgment "present evidence" is not a requirement that the party "present specific facts" as Foster implies. "Evidence" and "facts" are related but nonetheless different concepts. As a result, the summary judgment process imposes different requirements on a movant than those faced by the adverse party. Although the party moving for summary judgment must establish through "evidence" the absence of any genuine issue of material fact, there is no requirement the movant present specific facts. See Smith, 128 Idaho at 719, 918 P.2d at 588. Once the movant has made and appropriately supported its motion, it is the responsibility of the adverse party to come forward with evidence, id., and to "set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial." I.R.C.P. 56(e).

The Defendants' motions for summary judgment in this case were supported by depositions and affidavits setting forth evidence they had complied with the applicable standard of care. This evidence included the expert opinion testimony offered by Dr. Traul and Nurse Richardson in their affidavits, as well as the contents of their depositions. Consequently, when the Defendants made a showing they had complied with the standard of care, they shifted the burden and placed in question an essential element of Foster's case.

Foster sought to meet this burden by offering Patton's affidavits, but they were struck in their entirety by the district court. Foster did not raise those rulings as issues in his present appeal. "[W]e will not review the actions of a trial court, unless the action has been listed as an issue on appeal, especially where no authorities are cited and no argument is contained in the appellate briefs." Sun Valley Shopping Ctr. v. Idaho Power, 119 Idaho 87, 93...