Price v. Purdue Pharma Co., No. 2003-CA-02101-SCT.
| Decision Date | 02 February 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 2003-CA-02101-SCT.,No. 2004-CA-01929-SCT. |
| Citation | 920 So.2d 479 |
| Parties | Ernest PRICE v. The PURDUE PHARMA COMPANY; Purdue Pharma, L. P.; Purdue Pharma, Inc.; Purdue Frederick Company; The P.F. Laboratories, Inc.; Abbott Laboratories and Abbott Laboratories, Inc.; Gerry Ann Houston, M.D.; Ronald B. Williams, M.D.; Roger Collins, M.D.; Eckerd Corporation; and Walgreen Company. Ernest Price v. The Purdue Pharma Company; Purdue Pharma, L. P.; Purdue Pharma, Inc.; Purdue Frederick Company; The P.F. Laboratories, Inc.; Abbott Laboratories and Abbott Laboratories, Inc.; Gerry Ann Houston, M.D.; Ronald B. Williams, M.D.; Roger Collins, M.D.; Eckerd Corporation; and Walgreen Company. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Leonard McClellan, Jackson, Herbert Lee, Jr., attorneys for appellant.
Christopher A. Shapley, Robert L. Gibbs, Lawrence Elvin Allison, Jr., Steve J. Allen, Joseph Anthony Sclafani, Bradley Witherspoon Smith, Walker W. (Bill) Jones, III, Barry W. Ford, Terence L. High, Cable M. Frost, Jackson, Robert F. Walker, Gulfport, John Lewis Hinkle, IV, Jackson, Chris J. Walker, Ridgeland, Lee Davis Thames, Jr., R.E. Parker, Jr., Whitman B. Johnson, III, Juliette Veronica Wilson, John Alfred Waits, Robert S. Addison, Jackson, C. Paige Herring, Ridgeland, James P. Streetman, III, attorneys for appellees.
EN BANC.
¶ 1. This case arises from a civil suit involving the pharmaceutical drug OxyContin and comes before this Court following the trial court's grant of various motions for summary judgment filed by several defendants. The plaintiff/appellant, Ernest Price, sued multiple defendants claiming he sustained injuries from ingesting OxyContin, including addiction to the drug. The trial judge granted the summary judgment motions because the facts revealed the plaintiff's claim arose from his own behavior which amounted to fraud and subterfuge, namely acquiring multiple prescriptions from multiple doctors during concurrent time periods. Price now raises only one issue for this Court: whether the trial court erred in granting the motions for summary judgment.
¶ 2. We find no error and affirm the final judgments as entered by the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County.
¶ 3. Ernest Price filed this suit against The Purdue Pharma Company, Purdue Pharma, L. P., Purdue Pharma, Inc., Purdue Frederick Company, The P.F. Laboratories, Inc., Abbott Laboratories and Abbott Laboratories, Inc., Gerry Ann Houston, M.D., Ronald B. Williams, M. D., Roger Collins, M. D., Eckerd Corporation, and Walgreen Company, all of whom were allegedly involved in the production, manufacture, distribution, prescription, and/or sale of OxyContin. OxyContin is a strong narcotic pain medicine classified as a Schedule II drug because it contains oxycodone. Miss.Code Ann. § 41-29-115(A)(a)(1)(xiv) (1972). Price makes several allegations including negligence, products liability, malicious conduct, fraud, and malpractice, claiming the drug was addictive, that its addictive nature caused him injury, and that the defendants took part in producing, prescribing, or distributing OxyContin to Price.
¶ 4. Several of the defendants in this case are doctors who treated Price for his sickle cell anemia and related pain by prescribing OxyContin to him. Price was simultaneously seeing several doctors, obtaining and filling several prescriptions, and using several pharmacies to acquire controlled substance pain medication. The defendants moved for summary judgment asserting that Price's claim against them could not stand because it arose from his own wrongdoing. The trial judge agreed.
¶ 5. Price first saw Dr. Houston for treatment in 1997 and asked specifically to have OxyContin prescribed for him. On March 13, 2001, Dr. Houston received a letter from Medicaid informing her that during the time between November 1999 and October 2000, Price had been treated by at least ten different physicians from ten different clinics in two cities and had utilized seven pharmacies in three cities. After receiving this letter, Dr. Houston refused to prescribe Price any further narcotic medication.
¶ 6. Price first visited Dr. Collins in June of 2000 and specifically requested OxyContin. However, Price disputes requesting OxyContin in a certain dosage. Dr. Collins saw Price five times between June 14, 2000, and October 24, 2000, and Price never informed Dr. Collins that he was seeing other doctors and obtaining other prescriptions. During Price's last visit to him, Dr. Collins ended his treatment of Price's chronic pain and recommended that Price see a pain management specialist. In March of 2001, Roxanne Coulter, a nurse at the Mississippi Division of Medicaid, contacted Dr. Collins by letter, giving him the same information that Dr. Houston had received — that during the time between November 1999 and October 2000, Price had been treated by at least ten different physicians from ten different clinics in two cities and had utilized seven pharmacies in three cities. When contacted again by Price about an appointment in August of 2001, Dr. Collins informed Price he would not write him prescriptions for OxyContin. In September of 2002, Price again contacted Dr. Collins and requested OxyContin. When Dr. Collins refused, Price threatened legal action and filed this lawsuit the next day.
¶ 7. In September of 2000, only a few months after first seeing Dr. Collins, Price first saw Dr. Williams, who was referred by another doctor as a pain management specialist for Price. Dr. Williams was specifically asked by Price to prescribe OxyContin for him. Price visited Dr. Williams 19 times between September of 2000, and January of 2002, and Price never informed Dr. Williams that he was seeing other doctors or obtaining other prescriptions for pain medicine. Medicaid contacted Dr. Williams in March of 2001, informing him that Price was using several doctors to obtain OxyContin prescriptions. Dr. Williams, at different times, had Price sign both a responsibility agreement for controlled substance prescriptions and a prescription medication form — in essence statements from Price that he understood the danger of dependency on drugs like OxyContin. In September of 2001, Dr. Williams contacted the Mississippi Medicaid Office and discovered that from February to March of that year Price had obtained more pain medicine prescriptions than those prescribed by Dr. Williams. In January of 2002, Dr. Williams informed Price that he would no longer write prescriptions for him.
¶ 8. Dr. Collins filed a motion for summary judgment, basing his motion on the rule that Price's own wrongdoing prevented his claim from standing. When Price did not respond, the trial court ordered Price to file a response. Price's eventual response never addressed his obtaining multiple prescriptions from multiple doctors, but instead, Price claimed his doctors breached the applicable standard of care. The trial judge granted the motion and entered a final judgment of dismissal with prejudice against Price as to Dr. Collins only. The trial judge later granted similar motions filed separately by Drs. Houston and Williams and entered a final judgment of dismissal with prejudice against Price as to those two defendants. The Abbot defendants also later filed a similar motion, as did the Purdue defendants, and Walgreen, and Eckerd. The trial judge granted all of these motions in like manner and entered final judgments of dismissal with prejudice against Price as to these defendants. Additionally, because Price failed to respond to those motions for summary judgment from the Purdue defendants, the Abbot defendants, Walgreen, and Eckerd, the trial judge took these motions as confessed.
¶ 9. Price now appeals to this Court, claiming the trial court erred in granting summary judgment. Finding no error, we affirm the trial court's final judgments of dismissal.
I. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN GRANTING SUMMARY JUDGMENT
¶ 10. The standard of review in considering on appeal a trial court's grant or denial of summary judgment is de novo. Satchfield v. R.R. Morrison & Son, Inc., 872 So.2d 661, 663 (Miss.2004); McMillan v. Rodriguez, 823 So.2d 1173, 1176-77 (Miss.2002); Lewallen v. Slawson, 822 So.2d 236, 237-38 (Miss.2002); Jenkins v. Ohio Cas. Ins. Co., 794 So.2d 228, 232 (Miss.2001); Aetna Cas. & Sur. Co. v. Berry, 669 So.2d 56, 70 (Miss.1996). In considering this issue, we must examine all the evidentiary matters before us, including admissions in pleadings, answers to interrogatories, depositions, and affidavits. Aetna, 669 So.2d at 70. The evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the party against whom the motion has been made. Id. Issues of fact sufficient to require a denial of a motion for summary judgment are obviously present where one party swears to one version of the matter in issue and another party takes the opposite position. American Legion Ladnier Post No. 42 v. Ocean Springs, 562 So.2d 103, 106 (Miss.1990). If no genuine issue of material fact exists and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, summary judgment should be entered in that party's favor. Monsanto Co. v. Hall, 912 So.2d 134, 136 (Miss.2005). The movant carries the burden of demonstrating that no genuine issue of material fact exists, and the non-moving party is given the benefit of the doubt as to the existence of a material fact issue. Id. However, our decisions which discuss this rule are clear that when a motion for summary judgment is made and supported as provided in Miss. R. Civ. P. 56, an adverse party may not rest upon the mere allegations or denials of the pleadings, but instead the response must set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial. Stuckey v. Provident Bank, 912 So.2d 859, 864 (Miss.2005); Miller v. Meeks, 762 So.2d 302, 304 (Miss.200...
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