Spangler v. Bechtel

• Decision Date: 13 December 2011
• Docket Number: No. 49S05–1012–CV–703.,49S05–1012–CV–703.
• Parties: Steven SPANGLER and Heidi Brown, Appellants (Plaintiffs below), v. Barbara BECHTEL, Expectations Women's Health and Childbearing Center, and St. Vincent Randolph Hospital, Appellees (Defendants below).
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

958 N.E.2d 458

Steven SPANGLER and Heidi Brown, Appellants (Plaintiffs below),

v.Barbara BECHTEL, Expectations Women's Health and Childbearing Center, and St. Vincent Randolph Hospital, Appellees (Defendants below).

No. 49S05–1012–CV–703.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

Dec. 13, 2011.

Lance Wittry, Wittry Law Office, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Plaintiffs.

Edward L. Murphy, Jr., Heidi K. Koeneman, Murphy Ice & Koeneman LLP, Fort Wayne, IN, Attorneys for Defendants Barbara Bechtel, Nurse–Midwife, and Expectations Women's Health and Childbearing Center.

Robert G. Zeigler, Bobby J. Avery–Seagrave, Zeigler Cohen & Koch, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Defendant St. Vincent Randolph Hospital.

On Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A05–0908–CV–482

DICKSON, Justice.

Following the death of their full-term baby daughter in utero during labor, just before childbirth, the plaintiffs Steven Spangler and Heidi Brown brought this action seeking damages for negligent infliction of emotional distress. In the ensuing litigation, the trial court granted summary judgment to St. Vincent Randolph Hospital, to Barbara Bechtel (the nurse-midwife who provided pre-natal care during the mother's pregnancy and managed her labor at the hospital), and to Expectations Women's Health and Childbearing Center (“the Center”) (alleged by the plaintiffs to be Bechtel's employer). The Court of Appeals reversed as to all three defendants. Spangler v. Bechtel, 931 N.E.2d 387 (Ind.Ct.App.2010). We granted transfer and now hold that the parents' separate actions seeking damages for emotional distress from experiencing the stillbirth of their child are not barred by the Indiana Child Wrongful Death Act or the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act.

The underlying facts of the case are not in dispute and are provided in detail by the Court of Appeals. Id. at 389–90. Summarized briefly, Heidi Brown was pregnant with a baby girl who was also the child of Steven Spangler. Brown arrived at St. Vincent Randolph Hospital on February 24, 2003, for delivery services because she had begun active labor.¹ The plaintiffs' child was delivered stillborn the same day. Both parties concede that the child died in utero prior to the delivery. As of the time of the summary judgment proceedings, the plaintiffs' amended complaint asserted three counts. The first count, directed against all three defendants, alleges medical negligence in the provision of obstetrical care and treatment. The second and third counts, against the hospital only, allege that the hospital inadequately supervised nurse-midwife Bechtel and that it negligently granted her hospital privileges and failed to suspend them. As to the hospital, the action is proceeding under the Indiana Medical Malpractice Act (“the MMA”).² Bechtel and the Center are not covered by the MMA because they were not qualified health care providers under the MMA on the relevant dates of treatment.

The plaintiffs' challenges to the trial court's summary judgment rulings present only legal issues, not factual ones. In reviewing the grant of summary judgment, an appellate court faces the same issues that were before the trial court. Carie v. PSI Energy, Inc., 715 N.E.2d 853, 855 (Ind.1999). “Where ... the dispute is one of law rather than fact, a de novo standard of review applies.” Wilson v. Isaacs, 929 N.E.2d 200, 202–03 (Ind.2010).

1. Summary Judgment Motion of the Nurse–Midwife and her Employer

The nurse-midwife, Bechtel, and her alleged employer, the Center, jointly sought summary judgment on grounds that the plaintiffs' claims for negligent infliction of emotional distress are governed by the Indiana Child Wrongful Death Act (“the CWDA”), Ind.Code § 34–23–2–1, under which a claim for the wrongful death of an unborn child was not cognizable at the time of the death of the plaintiffs' child in this case. In granting the motion, the trial court concluded: (a) that the plaintiffs' claims for emotional distress could not proceed under the CWDA because they were based on the death of an unborn child, which was not a “child” for the purposes of the CWDA; (b) that the plaintiffs did not have valid claims for negligent infliction of emotional distress because they do not identify any negligently-inflicted injuries on another as required under the modified impact rule nor did they sustain a direct impact or demonstrate sufficient “direct involvement.” Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Judgment, Appellants' App'x at 15–24.

A. Child Wrongful Death Act and the Claims for Emotional Distress from Stillbirth

As of the date of the unborn child's death and subsequent stillbirth, February 24, 2003, Indiana law precluded any claim for damages under the CWDA. Bolin v. Wingert, 764 N.E.2d 201, 207 (Ind.2002) (holding that an eight- to ten-week-old fetus does not satisfy the definition of “child” under the CWDA and that “only children born alive fall under the [CWDA]”).³ Earlier in the present litigation, the plaintiffs sought damages not only for emotional distress but also for the wrongful death of their unborn child. But when the hospital sought partial summary judgment asserting such an action was precluded by Bolin, the plaintiffs conceded that it dictated the dismissal of their claim for wrongful death under the CWDA. Appellants' App'x at 54. As a result, the trial court granted partial summary judgment dismissing the claims of the plaintiffs brought under the CWDA but expressly ruling: “The claims of the plaintiffs for emotional distress relating to the death of their child was [sic] not implicated in defendant's motions, and as such, this action will proceed on this basis.” Id. at 57. The plaintiffs subsequently filed an amended complaint asserting only claims for negligent infliction of emotional distress, to which all three defendants filed renewed motions for summary judgment.

Supporting their motion for summary judgment in the trial court, Bechtel and the Center argued that the emotional distress claims are governed by the CWDA because they are not qualified providers under the MMA and because the plaintiffs' claims for emotional distress are “tantamount to a claim for the loss of love and affection provided for under the CWDA.” Appellants' App'x at 234–35. These defendants argue on appeal that the CWDA governs because the plaintiffs' emotional distress claims necessarily arise from the death of their fetus and should not be treated as separate torts.

The logic of this argument is dubious. On one hand, these defendants argue that the parents' emotional distress claims must be interpreted under the CWDA because it is “the vehicle for recovery following the death of a child,” Appellees Bechtel's and the Center's Br. at 8, but, on the other hand, they assert that such claims must then fail because this unborn child was not in fact a “child” under the CWDA. Id. at 11–12. To the contrary, that the CWDA provides no remedy for wrongful death damages for the death of an unborn child does not preclude the availability of a separate action for damages founded on a basis other than wrongful death.

Significantly, while Bolin did not allow an action under the CWDA for wrongful death of an unborn child, it nevertheless expressly permitted the mother to “claim damages to compensate her for her miscarriage” resulting from a traffic accident where the mother's vehicle was struck from behind by the defendant's vehicle. 764 N.E.2d at 203, 207–08. Noting with emphasis this aspect of Bolin, the Court of Appeals has interpreted Bolin to allow actions for emotional distress brought by mothers who suffer a miscarriage notwithstanding the CWDA. Ryan v. Brown, 827 N.E.2d 112, 118 (Ind.Ct.App.2005) (permitting mother of stillborn child to pursue separate action for negligent infliction of emotional distress while prohibiting action for wrongful death of unborn child), trans. not sought; Breece v. Lugo, 800 N.E.2d 224, 229–30 (Ind.Ct.App.2003) (holding that Bolin does not prohibit a mother from pursuing an action for the negligent infliction of emotional distress related to the in utero death of her unborn child), reh'g denied, trans. denied; see also Ind. Patient's Comp. Fund v. Winkle, 863 N.E.2d 1, 9 (Ind.Ct.App.2007) (noting that parents “may recover all emotional damages that were suffered as a result of the miscarriage” but holding that such damages are limited to the mother's damage cap under the MMA), trans. denied. We agree with the Court of Appeals' reading of Bolin.

On transfer, Bechtel and the Center argue that their position is supported by our recent decision in Ind. Patient's Comp. Fund v. Patrick, 929 N.E.2d 190 (Ind.2010), which was issued by this Court after the decision of the Court of Appeals in the present case. Appellees Bechtel's and the Center's Transfer Br. at 5–7. Patrick was a medical malpractice action seeking damages under Indiana's Adult Wrongful Death Act (“the AWDA”) for the death of the plaintiff's 31–year–old son resulting from alleged medical negligence in the treatment of his son's injuries. 929 N.E.2d at 190–91. Bechtel and the Center assert that Patrick held that, because the father's emotional distress claims arose out of the death of his adult son, his claims were necessarily governed by but not permitted under the AWDA. Appellees Bechtel's and the Center's Transfer Br. at 5. They contend that the CWDA should be similarly interpreted to be the exclusive vehicle for recovering damages following the death of a child, and that, since Bolin prohibits an action for the death of an unborn child under the CWDA, the child's parents should likewise be barred from pursuing separate claims for emotional distress. Id. at 7. We disagree.

Patrick does not stand for the proposition urged by Bechtel and the Center. The issue presented in Patrick was whether the MMA provided an alternative possibility for recovering emotional distress damages as a derivative claim under the MMA, assuming that emotional...