Lujan v. Healthsouth Rehabilitation Corp.

• Decision Date: 28 August 1995
• Docket Number: No. 22435,22435
• Parties: Irene LUJAN, individually and as next friend of her minor son, Martin Lujan, Plaintiff-Petitioner, v. HEALTHSOUTH REHABILITATION CORPORATION, Healthsouth of New Mexico, Inc., and Mercedes Chavez, Defendants-Respondents.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

Page 1025

902 P.2d 1025

120 N.M. 422

Irene LUJAN, individually and as next friend of her minor son, Martin Lujan, Plaintiff-Petitioner, v. HEALTHSOUTH REHABILITATION CORPORATION, Healthsouth of New Mexico, Inc., and Mercedes Chavez, Defendants-Respondents.

No. 22435.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

Aug. 28, 1995.

[120 N.M. 423] Kim E. Kaufman, Albuquerque, the Revo Law Firm, M. Terrence Revo, and Allan L. Knighten, Albuquerque, for petitioner.

Miller, Stratvert, Torgerson & Schlenker, P.A., Alice Tomlinson Lorenz and Jill Burtram, Albuquerque, for respondents.

OPINION

RANSOM, Justice.

¶1 Irene Lujan sued Nancy Jaramillo for injuries that Lujan's son Martin sustained in a motorcycle collision with Jaramillo's automobile on January 27, 1990. In settlement of that suit, Lujan signed a release of claims in February 1991. In March 1993 Lujan sued Healthsouth Rehabilitation Corporation, Healthsouth of New Mexico, Inc., and Mercedes Chavez (collectively, "Healthsouth") for medical malpractice in connection with treatment of the femoral fracture that Martin suffered in the accident with Jaramillo. Healthsouth moved for summary judgment, arguing that the release signed by Lujan in settlement of her suit against Jaramillo barred her medical malpractice claims. The trial court granted Healthsouth's motion, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. Lujan v. Healthsouth Rehabilitation Corp., 118 N.M. 691, 884 P.2d 847 (Ct.App.1994).

¶2 We granted Lujan's petition for certiorari and now hold that the general release of a named tortfeasor who causes injury requiring subsequent medical treatment does not as a matter of law bar an action by the releasor against the medical care provider for negligent treatment. We further conclude that the general release executed by Lujan does not purport to bar her claims against a successive tortfeasor whose liability is limited to an injury enhancement arising out of the subsequent malpractice. We therefore reverse.

¶3 Facts and Proceedings. The release at issue here provides, in part:

IN CONSIDERATION of the sum of One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000) the receipt and sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged by IRENE LUJAN, individually and as the mother, guardian, and next best friend of her minor son [ ] MARTIN LUJAN ... [hereinafter called "Releasors"], Releasor individually and for their heirs, executors, administrators and assigns does hereby forever release and discharge NANCY JARAMILLO, and her agents, servants, employees, representatives, insurance companies, attorneys, successors and assigns, and also any and all other persons, associates, or corporations, whether herein named or referred to or not, and who together with the above-named parties may be jointly or severally liable to the Releasors, or anyone else acting on behalf of or through the derivative rights of the Releasors, [hereinafter "Releasee"] of and from any and all claims, causes of action, rights suits, covenants, contracts, agreements, judgments and demands of whatsoever kind or nature that Releasors have or may have against Releasee for damages to Releasors' person or property arising out of an accident on or about January 27, 1990, at the intersection of Blake and Tapia, SW, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

(Emphasis added). After executing this release, Lujan sued Healthsouth, alleging that in March 1990 Healthsouth employee Mercedes Chavez improperly manipulated Martin's left leg, refracturing the original femoral fracture site. Healthsouth moved for summary judgment, arguing that because Jaramillo might be "jointly or severally liable" with Healthsouth for Martin's March 1990 injuries, the general release barred Lujan's malpractice claims.

¶4 The trial court found that the release was unambiguous as a matter of law, determined that Lujan's malpractice claims were included within the terms of the release, and granted Healthsouth's summary judgment motion. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the release barred Lujan's malpractice claims because Healthsouth may have been "severally liable" with Jaramillo for malpractice damages that "arose out of" Martin's accident with Jaramillo. Lujan, 118 N.M. at 693, 884 P.2d at 849. We agree that the dispositive issue here is not whether Jaramillo was jointly or severally liable for the March 1990 enhanced injury. Jaramillo's liability for that claim undisputedly was settled. The issue is whether Healthsouth falls within the category of "other person" who together with Jaramillo may be "jointly or severally liable" to Lujan for injuries arising out of the January 1990 accident.

¶5 General release of a tortfeasor who causes an injury that requires medical treatment does not as a matter of law also release an allegedly negligent medical care provider. Lujan argues that because Jaramillo can no longer be liable with Healthsouth for the enhanced injury to Martin's leg, the trial court erred as a matter of law when it concluded that the release included Healthsouth. Healthsouth counters that Jaramillo may be exposed to further claims or to harassment as a witness or deponent if Lujan is allowed to sue Healthsouth for negligent treatment of Martin's injuries. Healthsouth contends that because Lujan agreed to release "all other persons ... who together with [Jaramillo] may be jointly or severally liable to [Lujan]," the trial court correctly found that Healthsouth was a third-party beneficiary of the release. Healthsouth relies for support on Martinez v. First National Bank of Santa Fe, 107 N.M. 268, 755 P.2d 606 (Ct.App.1987) (suggesting fault may be apportioned between negligent physician and initial tortfeasor), cert. quashed, 107 N.M. 308, 756 P.2d 1203 (1988).

¶6 The Martinez decision. In Martinez the Court of Appeals considered whether the trial court erred by instructing the jury in a medical malpractice action that when assessing the defendant physician's liability for causing an enhanced injury, it could apportion fault between the physician and the driver of a pickup truck whose alleged negligence caused the plaintiff's original injury. Id. at 269-70, 755 P.2d at 607-08. In deciding this issue, the Court concluded that while a physician "should not be liable in malpractice for [a plaintiff's] harm in the original injury, ... damages should be apportioned among those negligently contributing to the [enhanced] injury if that negligence was a proximate cause of the injury." Id. at 270, 755 P.2d at 608 (emphasis added). The Court ultimately held that because trial testimony was insufficient to establish the negligence of the pickup driver, the trial court erred when it instructed the jury that it could apportion fault between the driver and the physician. Id. at 271, 755 P.2d at 609. The Court strongly suggested, however, that if the negligence of the pickup truck driver had been established, the jury properly could have apportioned his fault with that of the treating physician and then could have reduced the physician's liability for the plaintiff's enhanced injury in proportion to the driver's fault. Id.

¶7 Healthsouth contends that in order for Jaramillo to receive the benefit of the release she obtained from Lujan, we must construe the release to bar Lujan's malpractice claims. Healthsouth reasons that in defending against a malpractice suit by Lujan, it would be obligated to join Jaramillo to establish her negligence and reduce its own liability. See Tipton v. Texaco, 103 N.M. 689, 693, 712 P.2d 1351, 1355 (1985) ("[T]he rules of third-party practice and joinder of missing parties ... [will] be liberally applied when comparative fault or liability of multiple parties surfaces in the pleadings."); Guitard v. Gulf Oil Co., 100 N.M. 358, 363, 670 P.2d 969, 974 (Ct.App.) ("[A] defendant is not bound by the plaintiff's selection of parties."), cert. denied, 100 N.M. 327, 670 P.2d 581 (1983). We thus begin our assessment of Healthsouth's argument that the release must be construed to bar Lujan's malpractice claims by revisiting the suggestion in Martinez that a jury may apportion fault between a negligent original tortfeasor and a subsequently negligent physician for purposes of determining the amount of the latter's liability for enhancement of the original injury.

¶8 Fault of an original tortfeasor may not be apportioned for purposes of reducing the liability of a successive tortfeasor whose negligence caused an enhanced injury. When the negligent acts or omissions of two or more persons combine to produce a single injury, the law considers those persons concurrent tortfeasors. Under traditional principles of causation, if the plaintiff could not prove what portion of a single injury each of two concurrent tortfeasors had caused, that plaintiff could not recover damages from either wrongdoer. See, e.g., Tucker Oil Co. v. Matthews, 119 S.W.2d 606, 608 (Tex.Civ.App.1938) (directing verdict for one of several defendants who had polluted stream because plaintiff could not prove how much damage was caused by that defendant). See generally 3 Fowler V. Harper et al., The Law of Torts § 10.1, at 23-29 (2d ed. 1986) (describing origins of rule of joint and several liability in cases involving concurrent tortfeasors).

¶9 Rather than permit wrongdoers to escape without liability, American jurisdictions, including New Mexico, adopted the rule that each concurrent tortfeasor is jointly and severally liable for the entire harm. See Crespin v. Albuquerque Gas & Elec. Co., 39 N.M. 473, 478, 50 P.2d 259, 262 (1935) (upholding instruction informing jury that if defendant's negligence had combined and united with negligence of another to proximately cause plaintiff's injury, plaintiff is entitled to recover entire damages from defendant); W. Page Keeton et al., Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts § 47, at 328 (5th ed. 1984). The rule has been expressed as follows: "Where two or more causes combine to produce ... a single result, incapable of any reasonable division,...