Columbia Hosp. Corp. of Houston v. Moore

92 S.W.3d 470, 45 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 957, 2002 Tex. LEXIS 104, 2002 WL 1378961
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedJune 27, 2002
Docket01-0293
StatusPublished
Cited by58 cases

This text of 92 S.W.3d 470 (Columbia Hosp. Corp. of Houston v. Moore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Columbia Hosp. Corp. of Houston v. Moore, 92 S.W.3d 470, 45 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 957, 2002 Tex. LEXIS 104, 2002 WL 1378961 (Tex. 2002).

Opinions

Justice ENOCH

delivered the opinion of the Court,

in which Justice HECHT, Justice OWEN, Justice JEFFERSON, and Justice RODRIGUEZ joined, and in which Justice O’Neill joined Part III only.

In this case we decide whether prejudgment interest assessed under subchapter P of the Medical Liability and Insurance Improvement Act1 (“the Act”) is subject to the Act’s subchapter K damages cap.2 Following our recent decision in Horizon/CMS Healthcare Corporation v. Auld,3 we hold that subchapter P’s prejudgment interest damages are subject to the statutory cap. We therefore modify the court of appeals’ judgment,4 remanding this case to the trial court.

I

Katherine Moore died after undergoing surgery at Columbia Bellaire Medical Center (“Columbia”) in 1996. Her husband, two daughters, and estate (collectively “the Moores”) sued the hospital and Katherine’s two treating physicians under the wrongful death and survival statutes. The jury found for the Moores, allocating causal negligence between Columbia and the physicians and finding the Moores’ actual damages to be $3 million. The trial court applied the Act’s subchapter K damages cap to reduce Columbia’s actual damages liability to $1,305,691, but added another $300,487.79 in subchapter P prejudgment interest to the capped amount. The two physicians settled after judgment. Although the trial judge’s application of the damages cap gave rise to other disputes resolved by the court of appeals, the only issue before us is whether the trial court erred in excluding prejudgment interest from the damages cap.

The subchapter K damages cap, found at article 4590i, section 11.02(a) of the Revised Civil Statutes, provides:

In an action on a health care liability claim where final judgment is rendered against a physician or health care provider, the limit of civil liability for damages of the physician or health care provider shall be limited to an amount not to exceed $500,000.5

The cap is adjusted to account for inflation when applied,6 and neither party disputes [472]*472that the cap was properly adjusted and applied to reach the $1,305,691 awarded by the trial court here.

Subchapter K was a centerpiece of the original Medical Liability and Insurance Improvement Act passed in 1977 in order to “reduce excessive frequency and severity of health care liability claims.”7 In 1995, the Legislature added subchapter P to the Act, providing for a particular “[c]omputation of [pjrejudgment [ijnterest” in health care liability claims.8 The relevant portion of this provision, section 16.02(b), dictates that in such claims “the judgment must include prejudgment interest on past damages found by the trier of fact, but shall not include prejudgment interest on future damages found by the trier of fact.”9 Subchapter P explicitly states that its computation applies “[njot-withstanding” the general prejudgment interest statute,10 but makes no mention of subchapter K’s damages cap.

The Moores argue, and the court of appeals held,11 that the Legislature’s addition of subchapter P’s prejudgment interest provisions to the Act evidenced an intent to exclude prejudgment interest from the damages cap prescribed by sub-chapter K, and that section 16.02(b)’s mandatory language must be given effect by adding prejudgment interest, when applicable, to the capped damages amount. We disagree.

II

We recently addressed a strikingly similar question in Horizon/CMS Healthcare Corporation v. Auld.12 In Auld we were asked to reconcile the Act’s damages cap with the former general prejudgment interest statute directing that “judgments in wrongful death, personal injury, or property damage cases must include prejudgment interest.”13 Like section 16.02(b), this provision was mandatory; like sub-chapter P, the statute did not reference the Act’s damages cap. But we held in Auld that prejudgment interest required by the general statute was subject to the Act’s subchapter K damages cap.14

At the heart of our analysis was the recognition that prejudgment interest was a form of damages that the Legislature intended to include in the Act’s cap.15 We emphasized that the Act was designed “to limit, not expand, a health-care provider’s civil liability for damages,”16 and including prejudgment interest in the cap was consistent with the Legislature’s expressed purposes of decreasing the cost of health care claims and ensuring the availability of reasonably affordable insurance.17 We further noted that the statutory provisions could be harmonized to the extent that prejudgment interest would be recovered up to the cap [473]*473amount.18 And because subchapter K’s damages cap had a more specific application than the general prejudgment interest statute, including prejudgment interest in the cap was consistent with the statutory construction principle that the more specific statute controls over the more general one.19

The court of appeals distinguished Auld, relying on the dissenting opinion in that case,20 and suggested that the addition of subchapter P to the Act indicated a legislative intent to exclude prejudgment interest damages from subchapter K’s cap.21 We disagree. Although the court of appeals correctly noted that the Act’s prejudgment interest provision is no more general than its damages cap, making that portion of Auld’s statutory construction analysis inapplicable,22 the heart of Auld ⅛ analysis continues to apply, and compels the result we reach today.

First, the addition of subchapter P to the Act did nothing to change the nature of the prejudgment interest awarded. Prejudgment interest was, and continues to be, “compensation allowed by law as additional damages for lost use of the money due as damages during the lapse of time between the accrual of the claim and the date of judgment.”23 These additional compensatory damages, we held in Auld, are among the damages that the Legislature intended to include in a defendant’s “limit of civil liability for damages.”24 Under Auld subchapter K capped, and continues to cap, damages of the kind subchapter P awards.

Second, Auld ⅛ emphasis on the legislative intent to limit, not expand, a healthcare provider’s liability under the Act remains relevant. As its legislative history makes clear, subchapter P was designed primarily to foreclose a particular, previously available prejudgment interest application.25 Under the general statute — and under Auld, subject to the cap — plaintiffs received prejudgment interest on costs that had not accrued before the date of judgment.26 But under subchapter P, plaintiffs can no longer recover prejudgment interest on future damages awarded in health care liability claims.27

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Bluebook (online)
92 S.W.3d 470, 45 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 957, 2002 Tex. LEXIS 104, 2002 WL 1378961, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/columbia-hosp-corp-of-houston-v-moore-tex-2002.