Bogar v. Esparza

257 S.W.3d 354, 2008 Tex. App. LEXIS 3576, 2008 WL 2081538
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 16, 2008
Docket03-07-00037-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by88 cases

This text of 257 S.W.3d 354 (Bogar v. Esparza) 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
Bogar v. Esparza, 257 S.W.3d 354, 2008 Tex. App. LEXIS 3576, 2008 WL 2081538 (Tex. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinions

OPINION

BOB PEMBERTON, Justice.

We withdraw our opinion, dissenting opinion and judgment dated June 28, 2007 and substitute the following in its stead. We overrule the Appellees’ Motion for Rehearing.

We again address issues arising from the expert report requirements of section 74.351 of the civil practice and remedies code. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 74.351 (West Supp.2006). Appellant Mark D. Bogar, M.D. appeals the probate court’s denial of his motion to dismiss appellees’ health care liability claims under section 74.351(b) for failure to serve an expert report. Their appeal requires us to consider (1) whether we have subject-matter jurisdiction to consider it; (2) whether appellees served the required expert report; and, if not, (3) the appropriate appellate remedy. We conclude that we have jurisdiction over Dr. Bogar’s interlocutory appeal and that the controlling law and “four corners” of ap-pellees’ report leave us no alternative but to reverse and render judgment dismissing appellees’ claim and awarding attorney’s fees and costs. See id. § 74.351(b). In their motion for rehearing and en banc [358]*358reconsideration, appellees have urged that our application of section 74.351 violates due process and due course of law. We disagree, for reasons we will explain herein. We will remand to the probate court to determine the amount of attorney’s fees to which Dr. Bogar is entitled.

BACKGROUND

Appellees sued Dr. Bogar and Health-south on May 1, 2006, alleging negligence in connection with medical care provided to Katherine R. Guerrero by Dr. Bogar and the “agents, servants, employees, representatives, and staff” of Healthsouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Austin between December 28, 2004, and January 12, 2005, when Ms. Guerrero died. Appellees alleged that following surgery, Ms. Guerrero was placed under the care of Dr. Bogar and Healthsouth and, in the course of her rehabilitative treatment, was given a fatal overdose of pharmaceutical products. Ap-pellees pleaded that an autopsy report from the Travis County Medical Examiner concluded that Ms. Guerrero “died as a result of an overdose of oxycodone and propoxyphene.”

On or around June 6, 2006, Appellees served on Dr. Bogar and Healthsouth an expert report prepared by Dr. Jesse Adame that purported to comply with the requirement of subsection 74.351(a). See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 74.351(a) (“In a health care liability claim, a claimant shall, not later than the 120th day after the date the claim was filed, serve on each party or the party’s attorney one or more expert reports ... for each physician or health care provider against whom a liability claim is asserted.”). Both defendants timely filed objections to the sufficiency of Dr. Adame’s report. See id. (“Each defendant physician or health care provider whose conduct is implicated in a report must file and serve any objection to the sufficiency of the report not later than the 21st day after the date it was served, failing which all objections are waived.”). Each defendant contended that Dr. Adame’s report failed to satisfy the statutory definition of an “expert report” by failing to provide a fair summary of the expert’s opinions regarding applicable standards of care, the manner in which the care rendered by each defendant failed to meet the standards, and the causal relationship between such failure and Ms. Guerrero’s death. See id. § 74.351(a), (Z), (r)(6). Further, Dr. Bogar urged that' Dr. Adame, a pathologist, had failed to demonstrate that he was an “expert” qualified to render opinions concerning the standards of care applicable to Dr. Bogar, a physical medicine rehabilitation physician. See id. § 74.351(r)(5), § 74.401 (West 2005).

Subsequently, after appellees’ 120-day deadline for serving their expert reports expired, see id. § 74.351(a), Dr. Bogar and Healthsouth filed a joint motion seeking dismissal with prejudice, attorney’s fees and costs for failure to file an expert report complying with section 74.351. See id. § 74.351(b). Dr. Bogar later filed an amended motion to dismiss adding his earlier challenge to Dr. Adame’s qualifications. On January 10, 2007, the probate court denied the dismissal motions.

Both Dr. Bogar and Healthsouth timely filed notices of interlocutory appeal. In the interim, Healthsouth settled with ap-pellees. We accordingly address only the appellate issues presented by Dr. Bogar.

ANALYSIS

In a single issue, Dr. Bogar argues that the probate court abused its discretion in denying his motion to dismiss and request for attorney’s fees and costs. In addition to disputing the merits of this contention, appellees have filed a motion to dismiss [359]*359Dr. Bogar’s interlocutory appeal for want of jurisdiction, contending that no statute authorizes him to appeal the order he seeks to challenge.

Jurisdiction

Appellate courts generally have subject-matter jurisdiction only over appeals from final judgments and have jurisdiction over appeals of interlocutory orders only when that authority is explicitly granted by statute. Academy of Oriental Med., L.L.C. v. Andra, 173 S.W.8d 184, 185 (Tex.App.-Austin 2005, no pet) (citing Stary v. DeBord, 967 S.W.2d 352, 352-53 (Tex.1998)). Section 51.014(a) of the civil practice and remedies code authorizes an interlocutory appeal from two types of orders regarding expert reports under chapter 74. First, an interlocutory appeal may be taken from an order that “denies all or part of the relief sought by a motion under Section 74.351(b), except that an appeal may not be taken from an order granting an extension under Section 74.351(c).” Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 51.014(a)(9) (West Supp.2006). Second, an interlocutory appeal may be taken from an order that “grants relief sought by a motion under Section 74.351(Z).” Id. § 51.014(a)(10).

Appellees assert that the order from which Dr. Bogar seeks to appeal is neither of these. They suggest that “the relief sought by a motion under Section 74.351(b)” is available only where a claimant has failed to timely file an instrument purporting to be an “expert report” by the 120-day deadline of subsection (a), not when a purported “expert report” is timely filed but is found to be inadequate. See id. § 74.351(b) (“If ... an expert report has not been served within the period specified by Subsection (a).... ”). Here, appellees maintain, there is no dispute that “the expert report of Dr. Adame was served within the required period of time.” Ap-pellees further assert that challenges to the adequacy or sufficiency of expert reports, as contrasted with their absence or timeliness, are governed exclusively by section 74.351(Z). Section 74.351(Z) states that “[a] court shall grant a motion challenging the adequacy of an expert report only if it appears to the court, after hearing, that the report does not represent an objective good faith effort to comply with the definition of an expert report in Subsection (r)(6).” Id. § 74.351(Z). Because Dr. Bogar’s motion, in appellees’ view, is “a motion under section 74.351(Z),” they assert that his right of interlocutory appeal is controlled by section 51.014(a)(10) rather than (a)(9), and no appeal is available from the probate court’s order denying him relief. See id. § 51.014(a)(10) (permitting appeal from an order that “grants relief sought by a motion under Section 74.351(Z)”) (emphasis added). They equate this case to Academy of Oriental Medicine, L.L.C. v. Andra,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

In re Michael V. Kelly, Ii, M.D., Compounding Plus LLC
543 S.W.3d 383 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2018)
Diagnostic Research Group and John R. Holcomb, M.D. v. Sushma Vora
473 S.W.3d 861 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015)
Anil K. Sinha, MD v. Roxanne Thurston and James Thurston
373 S.W.3d 795 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2012)
Fung v. Fischer
365 S.W.3d 507 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2012)
San Antonio Extended Medical Care, Inc. v. Vasquez
358 S.W.3d 685 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2011)
BADHIWALA v. Favors
340 S.W.3d 560 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2011)
BAYLOR ALL SAINTS MEDICAL CENTER v. Martin
340 S.W.3d 529 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2011)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
257 S.W.3d 354, 2008 Tex. App. LEXIS 3576, 2008 WL 2081538, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bogar-v-esparza-texapp-2008.