Evans v. Morehead Clinic

749 S.W.2d 696, 1988 Ky. App. LEXIS 62, 1988 WL 34673
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedApril 15, 1988
Docket86-CA-2098-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 749 S.W.2d 696 (Evans v. Morehead Clinic) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Evans v. Morehead Clinic, 749 S.W.2d 696, 1988 Ky. App. LEXIS 62, 1988 WL 34673 (Ky. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinions

HOWARD, Judge.

The appellants in this case brought a claim against the appellees for the failure of mental health professionals to warn a shooting victim about a dangerous patient. The Fleming Circuit Court granted the ap-pellees a summary judgment and the appellants appeal.

Appellant Jerry L. Evans was employed as maintenance manager of an apartment complex in Flemingsburg, Kentucky, when he was shot by George Allen on December 1, 1983. After shooting Evans in the right temple and chest with a .22 caliber rifle, Allen used the rifle to commit suicide. Evans suffered partial paralysis, hearing loss, and visual problems as well as other injuries.

The appellee, Dr. Ranjit Sinha, a psychiatrist at the Morehead Clinic, had examined Allen on April 12, 1983. Sinha was told by Allen’s daughters that Allen had an increased interest in sex and insisted his 80-year-old wife was having an affair with a younger man. Sinha was also told that Allen had at one point threatened to kill the young man with a firearm but his family had managed to remove the bullets. Allen was diagnosed as suffering from paranoid psychosis, with delusions, and dementia.

Dr. Sinha recommended that Allen be admitted to St. Claire Medical Center for further evaluation of his condition, including any possibility of dangerousness. While in the hospital, Allen received various therapies and Haldol, a tranquilizer. On April 15, 1983, at his son’s insistence, Allen was discharged from the hospital. Dr. Sinha released Allen although it was against his medical advice because he thought Allen needed further hospitalization.

It is clear from the record that Dr. Sinha considered George Allen dangerous when he was first seen by Dr. Sinha. That is, Dr. Sinha considered George Allen dangerous to the extent that he would carry out his threats to kill the young man. George Allen was voluntarily committed to the hospital, but Dr. Sinha would have recommended involuntary commitment if Allen had refused. As pointed out above, George Allen was released from the hospital contrary to Dr. Sinha’s advice, but Dr. Sinha failed to discuss George Allen’s condition with the family physician and failed to warn the appellant. In addition, Dr. Sinha could not remember whether George Allen was still dangerous after his hospitalization was prematurely terminated; Dr. Sinha could only state that he would not have released George Allen if he was still dangerous.

About two months later, on June 21, 1983, Allen was examined at the Morehead Clinic by the appellee, Lewis S. Rose, the staff psychologist, who worked with Dr. Sinha. Mrs. Allen who accompanied her husband, told Rose that Allen still suffered delusions about an affair between her and a younger man. Rose stated that Mrs. Allen did not mention any threats made by her husband against the young man or the fact that Allen had a gun.

Rose made appointments for Allen to see the appellee, Dr. J. Hunter Black, at the Clinic on June 24,1983, for a possible pneumonia flare-up. Because of his delusions, Rose felt Allen should see Dr. Sinha. Consequently, Rose asked Mrs. Allen to bring her husband to Dr. Sinha’s office after he saw Dr. Black. Although Allen saw Dr. [698]*698Black on April 24, 1983, he did not see Dr. Sinha. Rose was not sure why he had not made a specific appointment for Allen with Dr. Sinha.

About two months prior to the shooting, Allen confronted the appellant, Jerry Evans, and accused him of having an affair with Mrs. Allen. Evans denied the accusation, telling Allen that he must be mistaken. Later, Evans discussed the incident with Allen’s son. Evans stated that Allen’s son only told him that Allen “had not been himself lately” but did not mention that Allen had seen a psychiatrist or had been hospitalized or that Allen had ever been considered dangerous.

The appellants filed this action on the grounds that the appellees had a duty to warn appellant of Allen’s dangerousness and that the appellees breached that duty. The appellees filed motions for summary judgment in March and April of 1986. The appellees asserted that (1) Kentucky does not recognize a duty of a physician to warn a third party about a patient and (2) the appellant’s failure to take precautions when he was alerted to Allen’s delusion constituted an intervening cause absolving the appellees of liability. The trial court granted the appellees’ motion for summary judgment on July 31, 1986.

The appellants contend that, pursuant to Restatement (2d) of Torts § 315 (1965), physicians have a duty to warn foreseeable victims of the violent tendencies of a patient.

Restatement (2d) of Torts § 315 provides:

There is no duty so to control the conduct of a third person as to prevent him from causing physical harm to another unless (a) a special relation exists between the actor and the third person which imposes a duty upon the actor to control the third person’s conduct, or (b) a special relation exists between the actor and the other which owes to the other a right of protection.

There are no cases in Kentucky in which § 315 of the Restatement (2d) of Torts was employed to derive a duty such as suggested by the appellant. However, a duty of a psychiatrist or psychologist to warn another concerning a dangerous patient has been imposed in other jurisdictions. Lipari v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 497 F.Supp. 185 (D.Neb.1980); McIntosh v. Milano, 168 N.J.Super. 466, 403 A.2d 500 (1979); Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, 173 Cal.3d 425, 131 Cal.Rptr. 14, 551 P.2d 334 (1976); Bardoni v. Kim, 151 Mich.App. 169, 390 N.W.2d 218 (1986); Davis v. Lhim, 124 Mich.App. 291, 335 N.W.2d 481 (1983).

Tarasoff, supra, is perhaps the leading case in this area. The parents of a decedent brought suit against a hospital on the grounds the decedent’s killer had confided his intentions to kill the decedent to his therapists but the therapist did not warn the decedent. The Court, applying § 315 of the Restatement held that:

Once a therapist does in fact determine, or under applicable professional standards reasonably should have determined, that a patient poses a risk of violence to others, he bears a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect the foreseeable victim of that danger. While the discharge of this duty will necessarily vary with the facts of each case, in each instance the adequacy of the therapist’s conduct must be measured against the traditional negligence standard of the rendition of reasonable care under the circumstances.

Id., 551 P.2d at 345.

The court reasoned that the “special relation,” as discussed in the Restatement, of a patient and his doctor or psychotherapist had arisen between the killer and the therapists. This special relation gave rise to the affirmative duties for the benefit of the victim. Therefore, the court concluded the decedent’s parents had a cause of action against the therapists for failure to exercise reasonable care to protect the decedent.

In McIntosh v. Milano, supra,

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Evans v. Morehead Clinic
749 S.W.2d 696 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1988)

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Bluebook (online)
749 S.W.2d 696, 1988 Ky. App. LEXIS 62, 1988 WL 34673, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/evans-v-morehead-clinic-kyctapp-1988.