Docken v. Ciba-Geigy

739 P.2d 591, 86 Or. App. 277
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJuly 8, 1987
DocketA8505-03039; CA A39177
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 739 P.2d 591 (Docken v. Ciba-Geigy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Docken v. Ciba-Geigy, 739 P.2d 591, 86 Or. App. 277 (Or. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinions

[279]*279WARDEN, P. J.

Plaintiff, personal representative of the estate of her deceased son, brought claims of negligence and strict product liability against the prescribing physician, pharmacy and manufacturer of a drug that allegedly caused her son’s death. The claims were dismissed for failure to allege ultimate facts sufficient to constitute claims for relief, and plaintiff appeals. We reverse.

We summarize the facts as stated in the first amended complaint. In November, 1979, the physician (Carey) and pharmacy (Kaiser)1 provided a drug known as Tofranil for plaintiffs son, Tim. The drug had been manufactured and packaged by defendant Ciba-Geigy (Geigy), which had supplied it to Kaiser. In August, 1983, plaintiffs son Terry ingested several tablets of the drug, hoping that they would remedy a problem similar to that for which they had been prescribed for Tim. Terry died as a result.

As a first claim, on a strict product liability theory, plaintiff alleges that the drug which Kaiser sold and Geigy supplied was dangerous and defective, because of defendants’ inadequate labeling and insufficient warnings, particularly:

“(a) In failing to label the Tofranil in a manner adequate to insure its safe use.
“(b) In failing to warn that Tofranil must be taken and administered with extreme caution and under conditions supervised by a doctor because of the potentially fatal effect of excessive dosage.
“(c) In failing to warn that Tofranil must be disposed of promptly after use because of the potentially fatal effect of excessive dosage.
“(d) In failing to warn that Tofranil must be stored out of reach or access by children because of the potentially fatal effect of the excessive dosage.
“(e) In failing to warn that Tofranil does not quickly leave a person’s body, resulting in a potentially fatal build-up when taken over a short period of time.
[280]*280“(f) In failing to warn that excessive dosage of Tofranil may result in death, particularly to children.”

As a second claim, the complaint alleges that each defendant was negligent in the same particulars as in the strict product liability claim.

We first address plaintiffs negligence claim. The parties agreed at oral argument that the dispositive issue is “duty.” Defendants frame the issue as whether a drug manufacturer, pharmacy or prescribing physician owes a duty of care to someone for whom the drug is not prescribed if injuries result from the person’s taking the drug.

When they submitted their briefs and at oral argument, the parties were without the benefit of the most recent Oregon Supreme Court opinions discussing the role of “duty” or “no duty” in common law negligence cases. In Donaca v. Curry Co., 303 Or 30, 32, 734 P2d 1339 (1987), the court stated:

“ ‘Duty’ plays no affirmative part in a plaintiffs case that does not invoke an obligation arising from or defined by a status, relationship, statute, or other legal source outside negligence law itself; and, unless the plaintiff invokes such a specific legal source, ‘no duty’ is only a defendant’s way of denying legal liability for conduct that might be found in fact to have unreasonably caused a foreseeable risk of harm to an interest of the kind for which the plaintiff claims damages.”

In Kimbler v. Stillwell, 303 Or 23, 26, 734 P2d 1344 (1987), the court said:

“Unless a plaintiff invokes a particular legal duty arising from a status or relationship or defined by a legal source apart from the common law of negligence itself, ‘no duty’ is a defense argument that the plaintiffs injury falls outside the foreseeable risks of the alleged negligent conduct, phrased as a legal conclusion for the court rather than as a factual assessment of the foreseeable risks.”

Also, in Fazzolari v. Portland School Dist. No. 1J, 303 Or 1, 17, 734 P2d 1326 (1987), the court said:

“In short, unless the parties invoke a status, a relationship, or a particular standard of conduct that creates, defines, or limits the defendant’s duty, the issue of liability for harm actually resulting from defendant’s conduct properly [281]*281depends on whether that conduct unreasonably created a foreseeable risk to a protected interest of the kind of harm that befell the plaintiff.”

Plaintiff has not invoked a particular legal duty arising from a status or relationship, statute or other legal source outside negligence law itself. She relies on the common law rules of liability for foreseeable harm caused by defendants’ alleged failure to take reasonable care to avoid or minimize the risk of that harm. Similarly, none of the defendants’ “no duty” defenses asserts that some rule or status disqualified Terry or his personal representative, individually or as a member of a class, from recovering damages. Defendants’ contentions that a person who does not have the status of a patient with a prescription for the drug cannot recover is an argument for a policy, but defendants have failed to point out any legal foundation, distinct from elements of the common law of negligence, for that policy.

Defendants’ “no duty” defense is only another way of stating that the harm Terry suffered by using a drug prescribed for his brother was not a foreseeable risk of the conduct alleged as negligence in plaintiff’s complaint. See Kimbler v. Stillwell, supra, 303 Or at 26. The role of the court is “to determine whether upon the facts alleged or the evidence presented no reasonable factfinder could decide one or more elements of liability for one or the other party.” Fazzolari v. Portland School Dist. No. 1J, supra, 303 Or at 17. We cannot say as a matter of law that the harm was not foreseeable or that the complaint fails to allege facts from which a jury could find defendants negligent. The court erred in dismissing the negligence claim against defendants.

Plaintiff also contends that the court erred in dismissing the strict product liability claim. Strict product liability is defined in ORS 30.920, which provides in part:

“(1) One who sells or leases any product in a defective condition unreasonably dangerous to the user or consumer or to the property of the user or consumer is subject to liability for physical harm or damage to property caused by that condition, if:
“(a) The seller or lessor is engaged in the business of selling or leasing such a product; and
“(b) The product is expected to and does reach the user [282]*282or consumer without substantial change in the condition in which it is sold or leased.
“(2) The rule stated in subsection (1) of this section shall apply, even though:
“(a) The seller or lessor has exercised all possible care in the preparation and sale or lease of the product; and
“(b) The user, consumer or injured party has not purchased or leased the product from or entered into any contractual relations with the seller or lessor.

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739 P.2d 591, 86 Or. App. 277, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/docken-v-ciba-geigy-orctapp-1987.