Fraser v. U.S.
| Citation | 30 F.3d 18 |
| Decision Date | 15 July 1994 |
| Docket Number | D,No. 1495,1495 |
| Parties | Agnes FRASER, Executrix of the Estate of Hector Fraser, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Defendant-Appellee. ocket 93-6334. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit) |
Before NEWMAN, Chief Judge, and JACOBS and LEVAL, Circuit Judges.
This appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Warren W. Eginton, Judge), came on to be heard on the transcript of record from said district court, and was argued by counsel. On consideration of the briefs, appendix, record, and oral argument in this appeal, it is hereby ORDERED that the Clerk of this Court transmit to the Clerk of the Connecticut Supreme Court a Certificate in the form attached, together with a complete set of the briefs, appendix, and record filed with this Court by the parties. This panel retains jurisdiction so that, after we receive a response from the Connecticut Supreme Court, we may dispose of the appeal. The parties are hereby ordered to bear equally such fees and costs, if any, as may be requested by the Connecticut Supreme Court.
FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
No. 1495--August Term 1993
Filed: July 15, 1994
At a stated Term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the United States Courthouse in the City of New York, on the 15th day of July, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-four.
PRESENT: HONORABLE JON O. NEWMAN,
Chief Judge.
HONORABLE DENNIS G. JACOBS
HONORABLE PIERRE N. LEVAL
Circuit Judges.
--v.--
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Defendant-Appellee.
Certificate to the Connecticut Supreme Court pursuant to Local Rule Sec. 0.27 and Conn.Gen.Stat. Sec. 51-199a.
This litigation arises from an episode in which a mental patient fatally stabbed his employer. On June 17, 1985, Hector Fraser ("Hector") was stabbed 37 times by his employee John Doe, 1 and Hector died the next day from the resulting wounds. Plaintiff Agnes Fraser, as executrix of Hector's estate, has brought this action under the Federal Tort Claims Act, alleging that the negligence of defendant United States through its employees at the West Haven Veteran's Administration Medical Center ("VAMC") led to this fatal stabbing.
John Doe first came under the psychiatric care of the United States while serving in the Marine Corps. Diagnosed as psychotic, suffering from schizophrenia, and experiencing delusions that included incidents of violence, Doe was discharged from the military in September 1974. Upon his discharge, Doe returned home to Connecticut and began outpatient treatment at VAMC. From 1976 to 1978, Doe lived in various parts of the country and was treated at least twice on an inpatient basis in California. Having returned to Connecticut, Doe was a voluntary inpatient at VAMC for six months in 1979. Thereafter, through the time of his stabbing of Hector, Doe received outpatient treatment at VAMC. Though Doe continued to suffer from delusions that included violent images over this period, there is no clear evidence that he ever threatened or harmed anyone prior to the time he stabbed Hector. On June 6, 1985, Doe reported to the staff at VAMC that he had stopped taking his medication, and the doctors convinced him to take another form of medication. On Doe's visit to VAMC the next week, his last visit before the June 17 stabbing, Doe reported that he was feeling better on the new medication.
The plaintiff's complaint alleged that Hector's death was "caused by the carelessness, negligence and malpractice" of the defendant. Specifically, the plaintiff claims that VAMC (1) failed to properly treat, diagnose, and monitor Doe, (2) failed to warn others of Doe's violent propensity, and (3) failed to take reasonably necessary actions to control Doe in order to protect others. The District Court, applying Connecticut law, which both parties agree governs the substantive issues of liability in this Federal Tort Claims Act suit, granted the defendant's motion for summary judgment, holding that, as a matter of law, VAMC owed no duty to control Doe or to warn Fraser about Doe. In the absence of either of these two duties, the Court implicitly concluded that there was no failure to treat, diagnose, or monitor.
With respect to the cause of action premised on a breach of a duty to warn Hector, we are inclined to agree with the District Court's reasoning as expressed in Judge Eginton's decision dated November 16, 1993. The Court found as a matter of law that VAMC had no duty to warn Hector about Doe because, even viewing the facts most favorably to the plaintiff on the defendant's motion for summary judgment, the evidence did not show that it was foreseeable that Doe would commit an act of violence against Hector. The plaintiff asserts that her claim premised on the duty to warn should reach the jury because she presented expert opinion testimony to the effect that the psychiatric staff at VAMC would have discovered a threat of harm to Hector if the staff had asked Doe the right questions. However, in the absence of any objective indicia of a patient's propensity to cause harm, we are unwilling to conclude that, under Connecticut tort law, a claim alleging a breach of a duty to warn should reach a jury solely on the basis of expert opinion testimony suggesting that more searching questioning by the defendant psychotherapist would have revealed the patient's otherwise unforeseeable potential for harm.
With respect to the cause of action premised on a breach of a duty to control, however, we are in some doubt. Recognizing that the pertinent legal issues were a matter of first impression in Connecticut, the District Court noted that the Connecticut cases considering the duty to control the conduct of others have followed the Restatement (Second) of Torts Secs. 315-319 (1965). Section 315 of the Restatement implies that there is a duty to prevent a third person from causing physical harm when "a special relation exists between the actor and the third person which imposes a duty upon the actor to control the third person's conduct." 2 Section 319 provides that "[o]ne who takes charge of a third person whom he knows or should know to be likely to cause bodily harm to others if not controlled is under a duty to exercise reasonable care to control the third person to prevent him from doing harm." Restatement (Second) of Torts Sec. 319 (emphasis added). As noted by the Connecticut Supreme Court in ...
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