Adkins v. Furey

2 S.W.3d 346, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 3887, 1999 WL 323320
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 19, 1999
DocketNo. 04-98-01030-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 2 S.W.3d 346 (Adkins v. Furey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adkins v. Furey, 2 S.W.3d 346, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 3887, 1999 WL 323320 (Tex. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by:

ALMA L. LÓPEZ, Justice.

This is an accelerated appeal of an interlocutory order denying Dr. Adkins’s motion for summary judgment on the grounds of official immunity. For the reasons stated in this opinion, we affirm the order of the trial court.

Factual BackgRound

Christina Furey, an operating room technician at the time of the. incident in question, was assisting Dr. Adkins with a cesarean delivery. After closing the incision, Furey alleges, Dr. Adkins pressed the surgical staple gun to Durey’s shoulder and shot a staple into her arm. The gun was unsterile, the staple penetrated her skin and tissue and had to be removed with a Kelly clamp.

The incident occurred at Medical Center Hospital, n/k/a University Hospital. Fu-rey was employed by the Bexar County Hospital District. At the time, Dr. Adkins was a second-year resident in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC) and the issue arose as to whether Dr. Adkins, in performing the cesarean procedure, did so as an employee of UTHSC, which is a state entity, or as an employee of the Bexar County Hospital District (the District).

PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The Fureys initially sued Adkins and UTHSC for his intentional and negligent conduct. Judge Peeples granted UTHSC’s motion for summary judgment on grounds of sovereign immunity. The judgment in favor of UTHSC was severed and assigned a new cause number. Adkins filed a motion for summary judgment on plaintiffs’ remaining claims against him on the grounds of official immunity. In response, the Fureys filed their second amended original petition alleging that Adkins was employed by the District and that his actions were outside the course and scope of his employment. Adkins responded by filing additional evidence attached to his second amended motion for summary judgment.1 Judge Peden heard argument and denied the motion. This interlocutory appeal ensued. Tex. Civ. PRAC. & Rem.Code § 51.014(a)(5).

Standard of Review

When reviewing a ruling on a motion for summary judgment, we are cognizant of the fact that the movant has the burden of [348]*348showing that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that he is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. In deciding whether there is a disputed material fact issue precluding summary judgment, the evidence favorable to the nonmovant will be taken as true, every reasonable inference must be indulged in favor of the nonmovant, and any doubts must be resolved in favor of the nonmovant. See American Tobacco Co. v. Grinnell, 951 S.W.2d 420, 425 (Tex.1997) (citing Nixon v. Mr. Property Management Co., 690 S.W.2d 546, 548-49 (Tex.1985)). A defendant is entitled to summary judgment if he conclusively establishes all of the elements of an affirmative defense. Cathey v. Booth, 900 S.W.2d 339, 341 (Tex.1995).

The Issues and the Law

To conclude that Adkins is entitled to summary judgment under the sovereign immunity umbrella requires affirmative responses to three questions: (1) Whether Dr. Adkins was an employee of UTHSC? (2) If so, whether his actions fall within the course and scope of his duties? and (3) Whether § 101.106 of the tort claims act applies to an employee that commits an assault?

A. Employee of Whom?

Appellant admits that the District served as his paymaster but that UTHSC had control over him. Under the Texas Tort Claims Act, “employee” is defined as:

a person, including an officer or agent, who is in the paid service of a governmental unit by competent authority, but does not include an independent contractor, or a person who performs tasks the details of which the governmental unit does not have the legal right to control.

Tex. Civ. PRAC. & Rem.Code § 101.001(2).' Adkins relies on Rodriguez v. Department of Health and Mental Retardation, 942 S.W.2d 53, 56 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1997, no writ) for the proposition that to be subject to liability under the tort claims act, the alleged employee must be under the control and direction of the alleged employer. This does not resolve the issue, however, as the statutory definition would seem to require control and paid employment to invoke the Tort Claims Act’s waiver of immunity.

A Graduate Medical Training Agreement governs the medical training and employment in question. It is signed by Dr. Adkins, John A. Guest as president and chief executive officer of the District, and by a Dr. Forland on behalf of James J. Young, Ph.D., Dean of the Medical School for UTHSC. The agreement provides that the District does not have a legal right to control the medical resident’s tasks performed at the District’s hospital. However, the agreement also provides that the District pays the resident an annual stipend and provides such employee benefits as leave time, insurance, workers’ compensation, and parking privileges. The agreement also requires the resident to become familiar with and abide by the House Staff Manual, the bylaws of the medical-dental staff, and the policies, rules and regulations of the District.

Jack Park, an attorney who has been employed by UTHSC for nearly 30 years, is the Executive Director for Legal Affairs and Technology Licensing at UTHSC. On the issue of control, his sworn affidavit stated that according to the agreement and

as a matter of implementation and practice, the University of Texas Health Science Center controls the details of the work preformed by the House Staff Physicians, like Dr. William Bradford Adkins. The UTHSC recruits, sponsors, trains and makes the decisions as to whether the House Staff Physicians remain in the program. Schedules, rotations, and the details of the practice of medicine are made under the direction of faculty.... The Bexar County Hospital District does not assume any right to control the tasks of the House Staff Physicians under the Graduate Medical Training Agreement.

[349]*349In response to the motion for summary judgment, appellees attached a deposition excerpt wherein Park stated that every physician who has University Hospital privileges and who, therefore, might be in a position to exercise some control over a medical resident, was also a faculty member of the Health Science Center. There are no non-faculty doctors, or outside doctors, at the Hospital. All physicians in private practice who have been granted privileges at University Hospital have been granted nonpaid faculty status. Nevertheless, Park admitted, all physicians, including medical residents like Dr. Adkins, were under some control of the Hospital District. He opined that providing benefits of worker’s compensation insurance and withholding federal taxes also demonstrated evidence of employment by the District. In fact, UTHSC provided worker’s compensation benefits to all employees except the House Staff Physicians or medical residents.

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2 S.W.3d 346, 1999 Tex. App. LEXIS 3887, 1999 WL 323320, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adkins-v-furey-texapp-1999.