Eusea v. Blanchard

836 So. 2d 333, 2002 WL 31894765
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 20, 2002
Docket2001 CA 2229
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 836 So. 2d 333 (Eusea v. Blanchard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Eusea v. Blanchard, 836 So. 2d 333, 2002 WL 31894765 (La. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

836 So.2d 333 (2002)

Shirley Autin EUSEA
v.
Roger J. BLANCHARD, Jr., M.D., et al.

No. 2001 CA 2229.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

December 20, 2002.
Writ Denied March 28, 2003.

*334 A. Remy Fransen, Jr., P. Chris Christofferson, Fransen & Hardin, New Orleans, for Plaintiff-Appellant Shirley Autin Eusea.

C. Wm. Bradley, Jr., Nicole Duarte Martin, Lemle & Kelleher, L.L.P., New Orleans, for Defendant-Appellee Broadlawns Medical Center.

Before: PARRO, JAMES, and PATTERSON, JJ.[1]

*335 PARRO, J.

In this medical malpractice suit, Shirley Autin Eusea appeals a judgment sustaining a declinatory exception raising the objection of lack of personal jurisdiction in favor of Broadlawns Medical Center (Broadlawns), a teaching hospital in Des Moines, Iowa, and dismissing it from the suit. We reverse and remand.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On September 19, 1995, Eusea went to Ochsner Family Doctor Clinic (Ochsner) in Mathews, Louisiana, and was examined by Dr. Roger J. Blanchard. Dr. Blanchard was a third-year resident at Broadlawns who was participating in a "preceptorship," a voluntary program at Broadlawns that allowed residents to acquire practical experience in a setting and location of their choice. After examining Eusea, Dr. Blanchard diagnosed her condition as mononucleosis. However, Eusea actually had a strep throat, but no throat culture was done and no broad-spectrum antibiotic was prescribed. Five days later, she was admitted to the emergency room at St. Anne General Hospital (St. Anne) with septicemia. This led to septic shock and gangrene of her extremities and ultimately required the amputation of both arms below the elbows and both legs below the knees.

Eusea filed a claim against St. Anne and Ochsner with the Louisiana Patient's Compensation Fund, and amended it to add Dr. Blanchard and his malpractice insurer, Medical Protective Company (MPC). After learning through discovery in that proceeding about Dr. Blanchard's involvement in her treatment, she also filed a petition for damages in the Seventeenth Judicial District Court (17th JDC), naming as defendants Dr. Blanchard and St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company (St. Paul), whose policy provided coverage as the excess liability insurer of Broadlawns.[2] In its answer, St. Paul admitted that when he was involved in the preceptorship, Dr. Blanchard was insured under a policy of insurance issued by St. Paul to Broadlawns.[3]

On January 22, 2001, Eusea filed a second supplemental and amending petition, naming Broadlawns as an additional defendant and asserting vicarious liability claims against it, as Dr. Blanchard's employer. Broadlawns responded by filing a declinatory exception raising the objection of lack of personal jurisdiction. After an evidentiary hearing on July 5, 2001, the court sustained the exception and dismissed *336 Broadlawns from the suit without prejudice. A judgment to this effect was signed on July 10, 2001. It is from this judgment that Eusea appeals, claiming the trial court erred in concluding Broadlawns had insufficient contacts with the state of Louisiana for the court to assert personal jurisdiction over it.

APPLICABLE LAW

Appellate courts conduct a de novo review of the legal issue of personal jurisdiction over a nonresident by a Louisiana court. Griffith v. French, 97-2635 (La.App. 1st Cir.12/28/98), 723 So.2d 1140, 1142, writ denied, 99-0220 (La.3/19/99), 740 So.2d 116. Under Louisiana's long-arm statute, a court of this state may exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident on any basis consistent with the Louisiana Constitution and the Constitution of the United States. See LSA-R.S. 13:3201(B). Therefore, the limits of the Louisiana long-arm statute and of constitutional due process are coextensive, and the sole inquiry into jurisdiction over a nonresident is a one-step analysis of the constitutional due process requirements. Ruckstuhl v. Owens Corning Fiberglas Corp., 98-1126 (La.4/13/99), 731 So.2d 881, 885; Spomer v. Aggressor Int'l, Inc., 00-1646 (La.App. 1st Cir.9/28/01) 807 So.2d 267, 271, writ denied, 01-2886 (La.1/25/02), 807 So.2d 250.

The due process test requires that in order to subject a nonresident defendant to a personal judgment, the defendant must have certain minimum contacts with the forum state, such that the maintenance of the suit does not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice. International Shoe Co. v. State of Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 316, 66 S.Ct. 154, 158, 90 L.Ed. 95 (1945); de Reyes v. Marine Mgmt. & Consulting, Ltd., 586 So.2d 103, 105 (La.1991). In interpreting the due process clause, the United States Supreme Court has recognized a distinction between two types of personal jurisdiction—"general" and "specific." A state exercises general jurisdiction when the defendant's contacts with the state are not related to the lawsuit. Specific jurisdiction, on the other hand, is exercised when the suit arises out of or is related to the defendant's contacts with the forum. Helicopteros Nacionales de Colombia, S.A. v. Hall, 466 U.S. 408, 414, nn. 8 & 9, 104 S.Ct. 1868, 1872, nn. 8 & 9, 80 L.Ed.2d 404 (1984); Verdin v. Morania Oil Tanker Corp., 94-0916 (La.App. 1st Cir.5/5/95), 655 So.2d 542, 543, writ denied, 95-1402 (La.9/15/95), 660 So.2d 453. The two-part minimum contacts/fairness analysis applies to the assertion of specific as well as general jurisdiction. de Reyes, 586 So.2d at 109.

When a forum seeks to exercise specific jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant who has not consented to suit there, the requirement of meaningful minimum contacts is satisfied when the defendant has purposefully directed his activities at residents of the forum and the litigation results from alleged injuries arising out of or related to those activities. de Reyes, 586 So.2d at 106. When the cause of action, however, does not arise out of the defendant's purposeful contacts with the forum, due process requires that the defendant be engaged in continuous and systematic contact to support the exercise of general jurisdiction. A & L Energy, Inc. v. Pegasus Group, 00-3255 (La.6/29/01), 791 So.2d 1266, 1271. Contacts may be effected by mail and electronic communication, as well as physical presence. Spomer, 807 So.2d at 271-72.

As previously noted, the test has evolved into a two-part test, the first part being the "minimum contacts" prong, which is satisfied by a single act or actions by which the defendant "purposefully *337 avails itself of the privilege of conducting activities within the forum state, thus invoking the benefits and protections of its laws." Ruckstuhl, 731 So.2d at 885, citing Burger King Corp. v. Rudzewicz, 471 U.S. 462, 475, 105 S.Ct. 2174, 2183, 85 L.Ed.2d 528 (1985), and Hanson v. Denckla, 357 U.S. 235, 253, 78 S.Ct. 1228, 1239, 2 L.Ed.2d 1283 (1958). The nonresident's "purposeful availment" must be such that the defendant should "reasonably anticipate being haled into court in the forum state." Ruckstuhl, 731 So.2d at 885, citing

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836 So. 2d 333, 2002 WL 31894765, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eusea-v-blanchard-lactapp-2002.