Young v. Clement
| Decision Date | 29 January 1979 |
| Docket Number | No. 62789,62789 |
| Parties | Roy YOUNG et ux. v. Richard J. CLEMENT, M. D., et al. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
Robert W. Clements, Bernard H. McLaughlin, Jr., Stockwell, Sievert, Vicellio, Clements & Shaddock, Reginald W. Farrar, Jr., Raggio, Farrar, Cappel & Chozen, Lake Charles, for defendants-respondents.
Reuvan N. Rougeau, Roche & Rougeau, Lake Charles, for plaintiffs-applicants.
*
In this medical malpractice suit exceptions of prescription were sustained in the trial court and affirmed on appeal. Young v. Clement et al., 359 So.2d 1070 (La.App.1978).
The damage complained of resulted from surgery by Dr. Clement which removed Mrs. Young's Fallopian tubes and ovaries on January 26, 1973, which plaintiffs claim were healthy, and from an errant stitch which blocked a ureter and required additional corrective surgery.
On November 20, 1975 plaintiffs filed their first suit, against Dr. Clement alone; the suit alleged a course of surgical procedures which followed a persistent uterine infection during pregnancy, the failure to diagnose and treat properly, and, specifically, the negligent suturing of the ureter on January 26, 1973 during the removal of the ovaries. An amending petition was filed on February 9, 1976 making St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, Dr. Clement's insurer, a party, and specifying that the removal of the tubes and ovaries on January 26, 1973 was an unwarranted procedure because they were neither inflamed, infected nor malignant.
Another supplemental petition was filed on September 2, 1976 joining St. Patrick Hospital of Lake Charles, Inc. (also insured by St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company) alleging that the hospital knew or should have known that Dr. Clement improperly performed unwarranted surgery and wrongfully permitted him to operate in the hospital without proper supervision.
The Court of Appeal had only this to say about the prescription issues:
As held in Arceneaux v. Domingue, 365 So.2d 330, 1978, such a finding does not complete the appellate review of facts. When there is a reasonable evidentiary basis for the findings of the trial court they will not be disturbed Unless manifestly erroneous (clearly wrong).
In his written opinion the district judge accepted July, 1975 as the time when the Youngs had actual knowledge of the cause of the blockage of the ureter. It was then that Dr. Melton told Mr. Young that the likely cause was a misplaced stitch during the removal of Mrs. Young's tubes and ovaries. (Dr. Melton performed corrective surgery February 1, 1973). Mr. Young was prompted to inquire of Dr. Melton because of rumors about the reasons for Dr. Clement's prior departure from Lake Charles.
The district judge was impressed by the fact that, after the surgery in February, 1973, Dr. Melton had explained to Mrs. Young that the cause of her pain which made the surgery necessary was a blockage of the ureter. The judge found that Dr. Melton would have told the Youngs the cause of the blockage if they had asked, and said, "They should have asked the question, 'why the blockage' then." Such "constructive knowledge," the trial court held, defeated plaintiffs' efforts to avoid the running of prescription on their claim for the blocked ureter.
As for the claim for wrongful removal of healthy tissues (Fallopian tubes and ovaries) on January 26, 1973, the trial court found that the Youngs were not so ignorant of the factual basis of their claim as to prevent the running of prescription. Because Dr. Clement read the pathologist's report to the Youngs shortly after the operation, presumably, the Youngs should have known that the tubes and ovaries were healthy and that their removal, therefore, unwarranted.
Prescription does not run against one who is ignorant of the existence of facts that would entitle him to bring a malpractice action, as long as such ignorance is not willful and does not result from his neglect. Henson v. St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co., 363 So.2d 711 (La.1978). Roy Young is a butcher; he and his wife both had confidence in Dr. Clement, who had treated her since October of 1970. Mrs. Young had kidney trouble since she was eleven. She had been hospitalized and treated for urinary tract infections. Once she was hospitalized for pain in the kidney area very much like that suffered after the January 26, 1973 operation, but on the opposite side. She had her fourth child in May of 1971 and a hysterectomy on January 18, 1972. Several surgical procedures followed in 1972 because of bleeding of the vaginal cuff. Dr. Clement was still treating her when he moved to New Orleans in the middle of 1974, and he referred her to another doctor for care in his absence. The record discloses no evidence that the Youngs should have suspected that the reason for the blockage of the ureter was a negligent stitch by Dr. Clement during the operation to remove the tubes and ovaries. Dr. Clement, himself, according to his testimony, does not believe he stitched the ureter closed. He admits the blockage was due to the surgery. Dr. Melton's operation to relieve the blockage did not explore the cause of the blockage. Dr. Clement believed the blockage was a result of intentional but necessary closing of the peritoneum over the ureter to stop bleeding. Dr. Melton's opinion differed.
Neither doctor, obviously, told the Youngs that the surgeon's negligence caused the blockage. The record does not support the trial judge's conclusion that the Youngs should lose the right to litigate their claim because they failed to ask Dr. Melton, "Why the blockage?"
Nor should a finding that the Youngs were read the pathologist's report after the removal of the tubes and ovaries justify a conclusion that the Youngs knew or should have known that the removal was unnecessary and unwarranted. That report is as follows:
"ST. PATRICK HOSPITAL
of Lake Charles
524 S. Ryan Street
Lake Charles, La. 70601
TISSUE CONSULTATION
Submitted by Dr: Clement
Date of Surgery 1/26/73
Pre-operative diagnosis:
'P.I.D., Bleeding...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
96 0525 La.App. 4 Cir. 10/21/98, Asbestos v. Bordelon, Inc.
...or unreasonable. In re Medical Review Panel of Howard, 573 So.2d at 474; Griffin v. Kinberger, 507 So.2d 821 (La.1987), Young v. Clement, 367 So.2d 828 (La.1979). Mr. Plaisance argues that he had no reasonable basis to believe that any [96 0525 La.App. 4 Cir. 86] health problems he experien......
-
Richardson v. Cella
...So.2d 821 (La.1987); Lott v. Haley, 370 So.2d 521 (La.1979); In Re Medical Review Panel of Howard, 573 So.2d 472 (La.1991); Young v. Clement, 367 So.2d 828 (La.1979)). “Prescription begins to run when it can be objectively determined that the exercise of reasonable diligence would have aler......
-
Asbestos v. Bordelon, Inc., 96-CA-0525.
...or unreasonable. In re Medical Review Panel of Howard, 573 So.2d at 474; Griffin v. Kinberger, 507 So.2d 821 (La.1987), Young v. Clement, 367 So.2d 828 (La.1979). Mr. Plaisance argues that he had no reasonable basis to believe that any health problems he experienced prior to 1991 were attri......
-
Wimberly v. Gatch
...is not [93-2361 La. 10] willful, negligent or unreasonable. In Re Medical Review Panel of Howard, 573 So.2d 472 (La.1991); Young v. Clement, 367 So.2d 828 (La.1979). The doctrine of contra non valentem distinguishes between personal disabilities of the plaintiff (which do not prevent prescr......