Hefty v. Comprehensive Care Corp.

• Decision Date: 03 June 1988
• Citation: 752 P.2d 1231,90 Or.App. 310
• Parties: Kimberly Jo HEFTY, Appellant, v. COMPREHENSIVE CARE CORPORATION, Respondent. Robert and Karen HEFTY, Appellants, v. COMPREHENSIVE CARE CORPORATION, Respondent. 16-85-05306; 16-85-07732; CA A44372 (Control); CA A44383.
• Court: Oregon Court of Appeals

Page 1231

752 P.2d 1231

90 Or.App. 310

Kimberly Jo HEFTY, Appellant, v. COMPREHENSIVE CARE CORPORATION, Respondent.

Robert and Karen HEFTY, Appellants, v. COMPREHENSIVE CARE CORPORATION, Respondent.

16-85-05306; 16-85-07732; CA A44372 (Control); CA A44383.

Court of Appeals of Oregon.

Argued and Submitted Jan. 27, 1988.

Decided April 6, 1988.

Reconsideration Denied June 3, 1988.

Patrick L. Hadlock, Corvallis, argued the cause for appellants. With him on the brief were Robert G. Ringo and Ringo & Stuber, P.C., Corvallis.

Emil Berg, Portland, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief was Hallmark, Griffith & Keating, P.C., Portland.

Before BUTTLER, P.J., and WARREN and ROSSMAN, JJ.

WARREN, Judge.

In these consolidated tort actions, plaintiffs appeal a summary judgment for defendant. We affirm.

Plaintiffs are Kimberly, a minor at the start of this action, and her parents. The affidavits, depositions and exhibits submitted on summary judgment established these facts. Kimberly was 16 years old when she was admitted with a diagnosis of adolescent alcoholism and hysterical personality to defendant's Adolescent Care Unit on October 13, 1983. Her mother was with her when she entered the facility. They were advised that the treatment was voluntary, that the care unit was not locked and that the patients had the right to discontinue treatment. On October 19, 1983, at 11:00 p.m., Kimberly demanded to leave and was discharged against medical advice. She had been staying with her boyfriend immediately before her admission and phoned him when she decided to leave. She then left the unit with two other residents. Defendant has an internal policy of notifying parents or police when a resident leaves against medical advice or without permission. Kimberly's chart showed that a staff member made a phone call to her parents, but no one answered the phone. Her mother stated that she was at home during the entire evening and that the phone did not ring. The parents did not learn about Kimberly's leaving until the following evening. On October 20, 1983, at about 8:00 p.m., she was injured in a motorcycle-car collision while she was a passenger on her boyfriend's motorcycle. Neither alcohol nor drugs was a factor in the accident or her injury. There is no contention that her boyfriend was in any way at fault. Her parents had never objected to her riding on motorcycles and, in fact, the family had owned and ridden them.

Plaintiffs' complaints had identical allegations that defendant was negligent in that it (1) failed to notify Kimberly's parents when she left, (2) failed to notify the police, (3) failed to document adequately its efforts to contact the parents or the police, (4) failed to provide alternative care for Kimberly after she left the unit and (5) discharged her without medical approval at a time when it knew or should have known that she was incapable of caring for herself. ¹ Plaintiffs' allegations assume that defendant had an obligation to do or avoid doing the things alleged. "Duty" as a concept always used to formulate a legal limit to a defendant's liability was disapproved in Fazzolari v. Portland School Dist. No. 1J, 303 Or. 1, 734 P.2d 1326 (1987). Fazzolari did not, however, completely abandon the duty concept, which still defines the limits of a defendant's liability when a plaintiff relies on other than the generalized standard of care that the common law of negligence imposes on persons at large:

"[U]nless the parties invoke a status, a relationship, or a particular standard of conduct that creates, defines, or limits the defendant's duty, the issue of liability for harm actually resulting from defendant's conduct properly depends on whether that conduct unreasonably created a foreseeable risk to a protected interest of the kind of harm that befell the plaintiff." 303 Or. at 17, 734 P.2d 1326.

Here, plaintiffs did not rely on the common law standard of care but on responsibilities arising from a relationship giving rise to particular duties. ² Plaintiffs alleged that defendant operated an adolescent care unit and that Kimberly was admitted to that unit. Defendant admitted those facts. Plaintiffs thus invoked the relationship of the treatment center to the patient as the source of defendant's duty of care.

In Fazzolari, defendant's duty of care arose from the relationship of a school to its students. The Supreme Court noted that that relationship is founded on a compulsory school law which virtually mandates that children be in a school for most of the day and which leaves little choice to a student as to which school she will attend. Because most high school students are minors, school personnel have a great deal of supervisory authority over them. As a consequence, a school's obligation of care for its students is broader than the obligations which might apply to other persons. See Fazzolari v. Portland School Dist. No. 1J, supra, 303 Or. at 20, 734 P.2d 1326.

Unlike Fazzolari, where the relationship created a broad duty of care, the relationship of plaintiffs and defendant here created a narrowly defined duty. By statute, Kimberly, a 16-year old, had the right to determine her medical care without her parents' consent. ORS 109.675. ³ Defendant's undertaking to treat Kimberly was subject to the requirement that she remain willing to participate in the program.

Plaintiffs alleged that defendant was negligent in releasing Kimberly and in failing to provide alternative care. However, defendant had no choice whether to do or not to do those things. Plaintiffs knew that defendant's program was voluntary, that the care unit would remain unlocked and that Kimberly could choose to discontinue treatment. Once Kimberly had withdrawn her consent to treatment, defendant had no duty nor, indeed, any authority to hold her until it could notify her parents. Neither could it require her to enter alternative care. Plaintiff was not entitled to proceed on those allegations.

Plaintiffs also alleged that defendant was negligent in failing to notify the parents or police when Kimberly left the unit. Defendant's affirmative duty to do so existed because of its internal policy to notify parents when an "elopement" occurred. Defendant concedes that an issue of fact existed as to whether its failure to do more than try to call the parents once was negligent. It does contend, however, that any negligence in these respects was not the cause of plaintiffs' damage.

Although plaintiffs did not allege facts showing how the failure to notify her parents or the police caused Kimberly to be injured by a third party, they argue that they need not show that the actual sequence of events was predictable so long as defendant's acts exposed plaintiffs to the generalized risks of the type of incidents and injuries which actually occurred. Fazzolari v. Portland School Dist. No. 1J, supra, 303 Or. at 13, 734 P.2d 1326. They contend that it was error to grant summary judgment, because it could not be said as a matter of law that plaintiffs' injuries were not foreseeable and because a jury could determine that defendant's negligence was a "substantial factor in placing an impaired 16 year old on the back of a motorcycle operated by a 17-year old boy when this 16-year old needed to be in a controlled or protected environment."

In the philosophic...