Watts v. Cumberland County Hosp. Systems, Inc.

• Decision Date: 02 July 1986
• Docket Number: No. 383A85,383A85
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: Linda Cade WATTS, Kim Watts, and George Watts v. CUMBERLAND COUNTY HOSPITAL SYSTEMS, INC.; Dr. James Askins; Dr. Ralph Moress; North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Inc.; Dr. Victor Keranen; Dr. W.C. Miller; Dr. Menno Pennick; Dr. Eban Alexander, Jr.; Dr. James Toole; and Dan Hall.

Page 201

345 S.E.2d 201

317 N.C. 321

Linda Cade WATTS, Kim Watts, and George Watts v. CUMBERLAND COUNTY HOSPITAL SYSTEMS, INC.; Dr. James Askins Dr. Ralph Moress; North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Inc. Dr. Victor Keranen; Dr. W.C. Miller; Dr. Menno Pennick Dr. Eban Alexander, Jr.; Dr. James Toole; and Dan Hall.

No. 383A85.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

July 2, 1986.

No counsel contra, for plaintiff-appellee Linda Cade Watts.

Nance, Collier, Herndon, Wheless, Guthrie & Jenkins by Rodney A. Guthrie, Fayetteville, for defendant-appellant Dan Hall.

FRYE, Justice.

This is a companion case to Watts v. Hospital, 317 N.C. 110, 343 S.E.2d 879 (1986). The sole issue presented on this appeal is whether the Court of Appeals erred in reversing the trial court's entry of summary judgment for defendant Hall on plaintiff Linda Watts' claim that defendant Hall assisted her physicians in fraudulently concealing from her the nature of her physical condition. For the reasons set forth below, we hold that the Court of Appeals erred in reaching its conclusion.

Plaintiff Linda Watts, her husband, and her daughter brought suit against two hospitals, several physicians, and defendant Hall, a marriage and family counselor, alleging that defendant hospitals and physicians had failed to diagnose correctly injuries she suffered in an automobile accident in 1974, and seeking damages on a variety of theories. This appeal relates to the claims made against defendant Hall. These were three-fold: plaintiffs alleged first that Hall's action in revealing confidential information disclosed to him during his treatment of plaintiff Linda Watts to her various physicians constituted malpractice; second, that Hall negligently conducted his counseling of her and exceeded the proper parameters of his role; and third, that he had intentionally assisted her physicians in fraudulently concealing from her the true nature of her injuries in an effort to cover up the earlier malpractice of her original doctors. Plaintiffs' original complaint was filed sometime in June 1982; they filed an amended complaint on 19 August 1982. Defendant Hall answered and subsequently filed a motion for summary judgment on 3 November 1983 on the alternative grounds that the complaint as to him failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted and that all claims were barred by the statute of limitations. After hearing oral arguments on the motion, the trial court granted it. Plaintiff Linda Watts alone appealed to the Court of Appeals, which reversed the trial court's ruling with Wells, J., dissenting as to the fraudulent concealment claim. Defendant Hall appealed on the basis of Judge Wells' dissent; accordingly, plaintiff's claim against him for fraudulent concealment is the only one before this Court.

The party moving for summary judgment must establish the lack of any triable issue by showing that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Caldwell v. Deese, 288 N.C. 375, 218 S.E.2d 379 (1975); Koontz v. City of Winston-Salem, 280 N.C. 513, 186 S.E.2d 897, reh'g denied, 281 N.C. 516 (1972). As this Court remarked in Koontz, "An issue is material if the facts alleged would constitute a legal defense, or would affect the result of the action, or if its resolution would prevent the party against whom it is resolved from prevailing in the action." Koontz, 280 N.C. at 518, 186 S.E.2d at 901. All inferences are to be drawn against the moving party and in favor of the opposing party. Caldwell v. Deese, 288 N.C. 375, 218 S.E.2d 379; Koontz v. City of Winston-Salem, 280 N.C. 513, 186 S.E.2d 897, reh'd denied, 281 N.C. 516. We find that under the facts of this case, defendant Hall has met this burden with respect to plaintiff's fraudulent concealment claim.

Considered in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, the record discloses the facts set forth herein. Plaintiff was in an automobile accident on 7 June 1974. Following the accident, she was treated in the emergency room at Cape Fear Valley Hospital and released the same day. She has continued to suffer pain since this accident and has been treated by numerous physicians in several hospitals in at least four states. Until 1979, she was consistently told that she had no discoverable organic problem that would explain her persistent back and neck pain. In 1979, Dr. Gene Coin performed a CT-scan on her back that revealed what Dr. Coin thought were residual changes from fractures in two of plaintiff's lumbar vertebrae. Dr. Coin also told plaintiff that he checked the X-rays taken of her neck immediately following the accident and that these showed fractures in that area also. Dr. Coin's diagnosis was not confirmed by any of the other physicians who treated plaintiff and was later retracted by Dr. Coin himself in 1981 after a second CT-scan. Plaintiff consulted a new doctor in 1981 who told her that she was developing arachnoiditis, probably caused by the multiple myelograms given to plaintiff in attempts to discover an organic cause for her back pain.

Plaintiff claims that she did in fact suffer spinal fractures in the lumbar and cervical regions in the 1974 automobile accident. She alleges that the physicians who treated her at that time negligently failed to discover these fractures, and those who have treated her since knew about these fractures and "covered up" for the original doctors' negligence. Her claim against her physicians for fraudulent concealment is discussed and rejected in Hospital v. Watts, 317 N.C. 110, 343 S.E.2d 879 (1986), where her medical history is set forth in more detail.

Plaintiff also claims that defendant Hall intentionally assisted her physicians in this "cover up." She began to see defendant Hall in late 197...