Trahan v. McManus
| Decision Date | 02 March 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 97-C-1224.,97-C-1224. |
| Citation | 728 So.2d 1273 |
| Parties | Lawrence and Marie TRAHAN v. Robert L. McMANUS, M.D. et al. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
Joel E. Gooch, Lafayette, for Applicant.
J. Minos Simon, Lafayette, for Respondent.
Robert L. Roland, Chris LeBlanc, Baton Rouge, for Amicus Curiae Louisiana Hosp. Ass'n.
Larry M. Roedel, David A. Woolridge, Jr., Baton Rouge, for Amicus Curiae Louisiana Dental Ass'n.
Amy W. Phillips, Baton Rouge, for Amicus Curiae Louisiana State Medical Society.
Marc W. Judice, Lafayette, for Amicus Curiae Medical Protective Company. LEMMON, Justice.1
The parents of Terry Trahan filed this action to recover damages under La. Civ. Code art. 2315.6 for their mental anguish and emotional distress resulting from their sons injury and death. The principal issues are (1) whether this action falls within the limitations of the Medical Malpractice Act, and (2) whether "bystander damages" are recoverable when the "event" observed by the plaintiffs that allegedly caused their mental anguish was the negligent omission of the doctor who failed to treat their son in the hospital emergency room for serious injuries sustained in an automobile accident.
Plaintiff Marie Trahan received a telephone message that her thirty-six year-old son, who was living with his parents at the time, had been injured in a one-vehicle accident. She went to the hospital emergency room, where her son appeared to be in pain. However, the doctor relieved Mrs. Trahan's anxiety by assuring her that her son was not seriously injured and simply needed bed rest. The doctor discharged the son about two and one-half hours after he had entered the hospital.
Unfortunately, the doctor had read the wrong chart, and Terry Trahan, as suggested by the vital signs on his chart, was suffering from shock and internal bleeding. At home, Terry Trahan complained of severe pain to both of his parents, and his condition continued to worsen. He died in the presence of his parents about seven hours after his discharge from the hospital.
Two separate actions arose from the alleged malpractice. Terry Trahan's widow, from whom he was separated at the time of his death, filed a survival and wrongful death action under La. Civ.Code arts. 2315.1 and 2315.2 against the doctor and the hospital on behalf of herself and their children. The doctor and his insurer settled the claim for his maximum exposure of $100,000 under the Medical Malpractice Act, and the widow and children reserved their rights against the Patient's Compensation Fund as to their claim for additional damages.2
Terry Trahan's parents separately filed the present action under La. Civ.Code art. 2315.6 against the doctor and his insurer.3 Defendants responded with (1) an exception of no right of action, contending that plaintiffs were not within the category of persons entitled to emotional distress damages under Article 2315.6, since Terry Trahan was survived by a spouse and children; and (2) an exception of no cause of action, contending that the law did not authorize recovery of bystander damages under Article 2315.6 under the facts of this case, since plaintiffs did not witness the event that caused the injury to their son. The trial court maintained the exceptions, but the court of appeal reversed and remanded the case for trial on the merits. 94-167 (La.App. 3d Cir.3/22/95); 653 So.2d 89, cert. denied, 95-1018 (La.6/2/95); 654 So.2d 1112.
After trial, the jury, although finding the doctor was negligent, returned a verdict in favor of defendants, based on the additional finding that Terry Trahan did not suffer, as a result of the doctors negligence, "any injury that would not otherwise have been incurred." The jury thus apparently accepted defendants' argument that Terry Trahan would have died from the automobile accident injuries, even if he had been treated at the hospital.
The court of appeal reversed, with one judge dissenting. 96-669 (La.App. 3d Cir.2/19/97); 689 So.2d 696. First reiterating its earlier decision that plaintiffs had a cause of action for Article 2315.6 damages,4 the court noted that the injury-causing event was the doctor's negligent discharge of the patient, which was viewed by the mother and which caused her severe and debilitating anguish. As to the father, the court stated that "the continuing event was visited almost instantaneously" on the father who was compelled to witness the distressing events of the final seven hours of his sons life. Id. at 5-7; 689 So.2d at 701.
The intermediate court further held that the trial judge erred in instructing the jury on the law and burdens of proof in a medical malpractice case, because this case did not fall under the Medical Malpractice Act. The court concluded that the Act only applies to a claim by the patient against a qualified health care provider.
The court then reviewed the record de novo, concluding that the doctor's negligence was a cause-in-fact of Terry Trahans death.5 The court determined from the record that plaintiffs had proved Terry Trahan would have survived if the doctor had rendered proper care timely. Further determining that plaintiffs had proved their emotional distress was serious, severe and debilitating, the court awarded damages of $100,000 to each plaintiff.
On defendant's application, this court granted certiorari. 97-1224 (La.6/30/97); 696 So.2d 996.
The outset complaint to this court by defendants and amici relates to the holding by the court of appeal that this is not a medical malpractice action. The intermediate court made that ruling in the context of its determination that the trial judge erred when he instructed the jury on La.Rev.Stat. 9:2794 pertaining to the required elements of proof and the burden of proof in a medical malpractice action. Reasoning that plaintiffs were not patients of the defendant doctor and were not parties to a health care contract, the court held that the Medical Malpractice Act does not apply to an action by a third party for the mental anguish damages resulting from a patient's injury or death caused by the negligence of the patient's heath care provider. We disagree.
The cause of action for damages resulting from an injury to or death of a patient caused by a doctor is provided by Civil Code Articles 2315, 2315.1 and 2315.2. The Medical Malpractice Act simply provides procedures for and limitations on such causes of action when the doctor is a qualified health care provider. Similarly, Article 2315.6 provides a cause of action to specified persons for mental anguish damages resulting from an injury to or death of a patient caused by a doctor, subject to the procedures and limitations of the Medical Malpractice Act, when the specified relatives of the patient incur the mental anguish within the circumstances outlined in Article 2315.6.
The Act defines "malpractice" as follows:
"Malpractice" means any unintentional tort or any breach of contract based on health care or professional services rendered, or which should have been rendered, by a health care provider, to a patient, including failure to render services timely and the handling of a patient, including loading and unloading of a patient, and also includes all legal responsibility of a health care provider arising from defects in blood, tissue, transplants, drugs and medicines, or from defects in or failures of prosthetic devices, implanted in or used on or in the person of a patient.
La.Rev.Stat. 40:1299.41 A(8) (emphasis added).
The conduct complained of in the present case was an unintentional tort arising out of a qualified health care provider's failure to render professional services which should have been rendered to a patient. Each of the patient's parents was a "person having a claim under this Part for bodily injuries to or death of a patient on account of malpractice...." La.Rev.Stat. 40:1299.41 E(1).
In Hutchinson v. Patel, 637 So.2d 415, 428 (La.1994), a case in which a health care provider committed a tort against a person who was not his patient, this court noted that while the Medical Malpractice Act applies exclusively to claims arising from injury to or death of a patient, the claimant need not be a patient, and non-patient claimants may include representatives of a patient acting on the patient's behalf and "other persons with claims arising from injuries to or death of a patient." That language applies to the facts of the present case.
In summary, nothing in the Medical Malpractice Act distinguishes between damage claims by the patient under Article 2315, damage claims by statutory survivors of the patient under Articles 2315.1 and 2315.2, and damage claims by statutorily-limited relatives of the patient under Article 2315.6. The fact that the damages recoverable under Article 2315.6 are limited to mental anguish damages and to specifically required facts and circumstances does not serve to remove Article 2315.6 claims from the applicability of the Medical Malpractice Act, as long as the mental anguish arises from the injury to or death of a patient caused by the negligence of a qualified health care provider.
For many years, Louisiana and other jurisdictions declined to recognize a cause of action for recovery of mental anguish damages based on negligent infliction of emotional distress when the claimant's mental anguish resulted from a tort-caused physical injury to another. See, e.g., Black v. Carrollton RR Co., 10 La. Ann. 33 (1855). Recovery in early cases was allowed only for mental anguish that was "parasitic" to a physical injury, when the claimant could show some sort of "impact," however slight, upon his person. See W. Page Keeton et al., Prosser & Keeton on Torts, 363 (5th ed.1984). Later cases allowed recovery for mental anguish when there was physical injury to a person other than the plaintiff, if the...
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Lockett v. New Orleans City
...arises directly and immediately from the claimant's observing a traumatic injury-causing event to the direct victim." Trahan v. McManus, 728 So.2d 1273, 1279 (La.1999). The Trahan court further explained that "the Legislature apparently intended to allow recovery of bystander damages to com......
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...for the anguish and distress that normally accompany an injury to a loved one under all circumstances. Trahan v. McManus, et al., 97-1224 (La.3/2/99), 728 So.2d 1273 at 1279. Thus, the legislature decided to allow recovery of bystander damages, and created them as an element separate and ap......
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...fails as a matter of law because Mr. and Mrs. Bedingfield acquired knowledge of their son's injury after the fact. In Trahan v. McManus, 728 So.2d 1273 (La.1999), the Louisiana Supreme Court reasoned that the "event" contemplated by Article 2315.6(A) must be "an injury causing-event in whic......