Mullins v. State

• Decision Date: 30 September 2009
• Docket Number: No. E2007-01113-SC-R11-CV.,E2007-01113-SC-R11-CV.
• Citation: 294 S.W.3d 529
• Parties: Juanita MULLINS v. STATE of Tennessee.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

294 S.W.3d 529

Juanita MULLINS v. STATE of Tennessee.

No. E2007-01113-SC-R11-CV.

Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Knoxville.

January 7, 2009 Session.

September 30, 2009.

Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Michael E. Moore, Solicitor General; and P. Robin Dixon, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, for the appellant, State of Tennessee.

Travis E. Venable and J.D. Lee, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellee, Juanita Mullins.

OPINION

WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which JANICE M. HOLDER, C.J., CORNELIA A. CLARK, and GARY R. WADE, JJ., joined.

This appeal involves an application of the doctrine of collateral estoppel to a medical malpractice claim filed with the Tennessee Claims Commission that had earlier been adjudicated in litigation in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. The jury in the federal proceeding returned a defense verdict and declined to assign fault to any of the defendant healthcare providers, including a nonparty resident physician who had earlier been dismissed as a defendant because he was immune from suit in federal court. Following the conclusion of the federal proceeding, the State asserted that collateral estoppel barred the family of the deceased patient from pursuing their claims against the State and the resident physician before the Claims Commission. The claims commissioner denied the State's motion for summary judgment but granted an interlocutory appeal. The Court of Appeals affirmed the claims commissioner after determining that the State had failed to demonstrate that the claim against the resident physician had actually been litigated or that the plaintiff had been afforded a full and fair opportunity to litigate the claim in the federal proceeding. Mullins v. State, No. E2007-01113-COAR9-CV, 2008 WL 199854, at *7 (Tenn.Ct. App. Jan.24, 2008). While we have determined that the Court of Appeals erred by concluding that the issue of the resident physician's negligence had not actually been litigated in the federal proceeding, we find that both the Court of Appeals and the claims commissioner correctly concluded that the deceased patient's family did not have a full and fair opportunity to litigate their negligence claims against the resident physician and the State in the federal proceeding. Accordingly, we affirm the denial of the State's motion for summary judgment.

I.

Daniel Mullins was a 67-year-old resident of Pound, Virginia, a small community in Southwest Virginia near the borders of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the State of Tennessee, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Because he was complaining of nausea, a physician conducted a series of tests that revealed a benign fatty tumor in the upper part of his stomach at the junction between his esophagus and his stomach. Mr. Mullins was then referred to Dr. John Ehrenfried, a surgical oncologist practicing in Kingsport, Tennessee for the removal of the tumor.

Mr. Mullins was admitted to Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tennessee on January 7, 2004. Dr. Ehrenfried and Dr. Michael Boggan, a general surgeon practicing in Kingsport, Tennessee, removed the tumor on January 8, 2004. Following the surgery, Dr. Jose Luis Mejia, a fourth year surgical resident employed by the James H. Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University, became responsible for Mr. Mullins's post-operative care. On the afternoon of January 10, 2004, Mr. Mullins was returned to surgery for suspected post-operative bleeding because his blood pressure had dropped and his heart rate had increased. Dr. George D. Gonzales performed another laparotomy that revealed active bleeding from the suture line of the January 8, 2004 procedure and approximately two liters of clotted blood in Mr. Mullins's stomach. Dr. Gonzales removed the blood and stopped the active and brisk bleeding from the gastric artery.

Mr. Mullins developed serious post-operative complications following his surgeries, including Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation with multi-organ failure. Because of the failure of his circulatory system, Mr. Mullins developed vasoconstrictor gangrene in both his legs which resulted in the amputation of both legs below the knee in March 2004. Thereafter, he was discharged from the hospital.

In October 2004, Mr. Mullins and his wife, Juanita Mullins, filed a medical malpractice suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. They named as defendants the Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center and related corporate defendants, Drs. Ehrenfried and Boggan and their corporate practice, a nurse who had attended Mr. Mullins during the post-operative period, along with other unnamed employees of the Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center who had provided care to Mr. Mullins while he was hospitalized, and Dr. Mejia. Mr. Mullins died in October 2004 after this complaint was filed; however, Ms. Mullins continued the suit on her own behalf and as the representative of Mr. Mullins's estate.

Ms. Mullins eventually learned that Dr. Mejia, as an employee of East Tennessee State University, was personally immune from suit in federal court for money damages and that any claims against the State of Tennessee based on Dr. Mejia's care of her husband could only be pursued by filing a claim with the Tennessee Claims Commission. Accordingly, on November 3, 2004, Ms. Mullins voluntarily dismissed her claims against Dr. Mejia in the federal proceeding. Later, on January 7, 2005, she filed a claim with the Division of Claims which was transferred to the Tennessee Claims Commission on April 7, 2005.

In the meantime, Ms. Mullins turned her attention to the medical malpractice suit then pending in federal court. She amended her complaint to add another nurse who had attended Mr. Mullins during the post-operative period and the nurse's employer. After these new defendants were brought into the case, they asserted in accordance with Tenn.Code Ann. § 20-1-119(e) (Supp.2008) that Dr. Mejia, who was now a nonparty, had caused or contributed to Mr. Mullins's injuries.

The federal trial of the medical malpractice claims against the remaining defendants began on October 31, 2006. Dr. Mejia testified as a fact witness for Ms. Mullins regarding the events of January 9 and 10, 2004. Despite the absence of any competent expert testimony regarding Dr. Mejia's post-operative care of Mr. Mullins, the nurse and his employer who had been added as defendants requested that Dr. Mejia's name be included on the verdict form to enable the jury to allocate fault to him. The United States District Court agreed and included Dr. Mejia's name on the verdict form. Following seven days of trial, the jury returned a verdict on November 8, 2006, after deliberating for one hour and twenty-five minutes. The jury unanimously found that neither the named defendants nor Dr. Mejia were at fault for the injuries sustained by Mr. Mullins or Ms. Mullins. Accordingly, the jury assigned 0% of the fault to Dr. Mejia. Ms. Mullins did not appeal this verdict.

On November 20, 2006, the State filed a motion in the Claims Commission seeking dismissal of the pending claims against Dr. Mejia on the ground of collateral estoppel. The State asserted that Ms. Mullins should not be permitted to proceed with her claims against Dr. Mejia because "[t]he dispositive issue in this case—whether or not Dr. Mejia was at fault for contributing to the death of Daniel Mullins—has been previously decided by a jury in the federal case of Juanita Mullins v. Wellmont Health Systems, et al." The claims commissioner denied the State's motion but granted the State permission to pursue an interlocutory appeal in accordance with Tenn. R.App. P. 9. The Court of Appeals filed an opinion on January 24, 2008, affirming the claims commissioner's denial of the State's motion. The court concluded that the State had failed to establish that Dr. Mejia's negligence had actually been litigated in the federal proceeding or that Ms. Mullins had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue of Dr. Mejia's liability in the federal proceeding. Mullins v. State, No. E2007-01113-COA-R9-CV, 2008 WL 199854, at *7 (Tenn.Ct.App. Jan.24, 2008). We granted the State's Tenn. R.App. P. 11 application for permission to appeal.

II.

Collateral estoppel is a judicially created issue preclusion doctrine, Kremer v. Chem. Constr. Corp., 456 U.S. 461, 480, 102 S.Ct. 1883, 72 L.Ed.2d 262 (1982); Morris v. Esmark Apparel, Inc., 832 S.W.2d 563, 565 (Tenn.Ct.App.1991),¹ that promotes finality, conserves judicial resources, and prevents inconsistent decisions, Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 94, 101 S.Ct. 411, 66 L.Ed.2d 308 (1980); Gibson v. Trant, 58 S.W.3d 103, 113 (Tenn. 2001); State ex rel. Cihlar v. Crawford, 39 S.W.3d 172, 178 (Tenn.Ct.App.2000). It bars the same parties or their privies from relitigating in a later proceeding legal or factual issues that were actually raised and necessarily determined in an earlier proceeding. Barnett v. Milan Seating Sys., 215 S.W.3d 828, 835 (Tenn.2007); Massengill v. Scott, 738 S.W.2d 629, 631-32 (Tenn. 1987); Blue Diamond Coal Co. v. Holland-Am. Ins. Co., 671 S.W.2d 829, 832 (Tenn.1984). Thus, when an issue has been actually and necessarily determined in an earlier proceeding between the parties, that determination is conclusive against the parties in subsequent proceedings. King v. Brooks, 562 S.W.2d 422, 424 (Tenn.1978); Shelley v. Gipson, 218 Tenn. 1, 7, 12, 400 S.W.2d 709, 711-12, 714 (1966).

The party invoking collateral estoppel has the burden of proof. State v. Scarbrough, 181 S.W.3d 650, 655 (Tenn. 2005); Dickerson v. Godfrey, 825 S.W.2d at 695; Fowlkes v. State, 82 Tenn. 14, 18-19 (1884). To prevail with a collateral estoppel claim, the party asserting it must demonstrate (1) that the issue to be precluded is identical to an issue decided in an earlier proceeding, (2) that the issue...