Falcone v. Touro Infirmary

129 So. 3d 641, 2013 WL 5946588, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 2323
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 6, 2013
DocketNos. 2013-CA-0015, 2013-CA-0016
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 129 So. 3d 641 (Falcone v. Touro Infirmary) 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
Falcone v. Touro Infirmary, 129 So. 3d 641, 2013 WL 5946588, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 2323 (La. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

EDWIN A. LOMBARD, Judge.

11 This is a premises liability and negligence action against Defendant/Appellee, Touro Infirmary, filed by Plaintiffs/Appellants, who are the relatives of decedent Michael Falcone.1 The Appellants seek review of the district court’s August 6, 2012 judgment affirming a jury verdict which found Touro Infirmary Hospital not to be negligent in the death of Michael Falcone. Finding that the verdict of the jury is neither manifestly erroneous nor clearly wrong, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Educator Michael Falcone (“Mr. Fal-cone”) was a fifty-six (56) year old single man on August 12, 2005, when he presented for a routine physical and an echo stress test at an Ochsner Hospital (“Ochs-ner”) clinic for the 2005-2006 school year. The stress test revealed a Stanford Type A aortic dissection and an aneurysm of the ascending aorta. Thereafter, Mr. Falcone underwent corrective surgery performed by cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. P. Eugene Parrino (“Dr. Parrino”) on Ochsner’s main campus. Mr. Falcone remained at Ochs-ner in the care of Dr. Parrino after his surgery.

[644]*64412Mr. Falcone, who had been sedated with Propofol and other barbiturates, did not fully awake from his surgery in the days following the procedure. Moreover, it was discovered that he suffered an occipital stroke following surgery. He was intubated and due to pain, he was continuously sedated on Propofol and Morphine following the surgery. He was responsive to pain and was moving his extremities, but it was difficult for neurologic exams to be performed on him due to the sedatives he was taking. Dr. Parrino ordered that sedation and ventilation be stopped on August 22, 2005, and, that same day, Mr. Falcone awoke and began eye movement, pain withdrawal, and upper and lower body extremity movement. His condition gradually began to improve at Ochsner.

On August 25, 2005, Mr. Falcone was transferred to the Specialty Hospital of New Orleans (“SHONO”), which was an independently owned, long-term acute care hospital located inside of the main building of Touro Infirmary (“Touro”). SHONO and Touro were parties to a Lease Agreement, wherein SHONO leased the fourth floor and a portion of the seventh floor of Touro. Mr. Falcone was one of sixteen SHONO patients receiving care on the seventh floor of Touro when Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

The SHONO unit was primarily staffed by Sethany Johnson, a registered nurse, and Jacqueline Stampley, a licensed practical nurse, during and following the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Sequilla Gant, who is a licensed registered nurse, was the Chief Nursing Officer of SHONO. Nurse Gant was on the SHONO unit during Hurricane Katrina, but left the unit on Wednesday, August 31, 2005. Eight other SHONO employees left the SHONO unit.

As a result of Hurricane Katrina, the SHONO unit and Touro lost electrical power. The temperature rose on the SHONO unit and within Touro. It is disputed I,.¡between the parties as to whether Touro provided spot coolers, conditioned air or other mechanical cooling systems to the SHONO unit at that time. Mr. Fal-cone’s body temperature gradually rose to over 107 degrees Fahrenheit in the days following the loss of power to the premises. Mr. Falcone expired in the SHONO unit on September 1, 2005. His medical records list his cause of death as being “cardiopulmonary arrest 2° [secondary to] hyperthermia.”2

The Appellants filed suit in December 2006 against SHONO and Touro seeking survival and wrongful death damages as a result of Mr. Falcone’s death. The Appellants later reached a settlement with SHO-NO and it was dismissed from the lawsuit. A jury trial was held from early to late July 2012, and the sole verdict of the jury was that Touro was not negligent. A judgment reflecting the verdict was signed by the district court on August 6, 2012. The Appellants filed a motion for appeal and this timely appeal followed.

The Appellants raise three (3) assignments of error on appeal:

1. the jury was manifestly erroneous in failing to find that the Appellants proved by a preponderance of the evidence that Touro was negligent;
2. the jury was manifestly erroneous in failing to find that the Appellants proved by a preponderance of the evidence that Touro’s premises during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina were unreasonably dangerous; and
3. the jury was manifestly erroneous in failing to find that Touro, pursuant [645]*645to its Lease and Services Agreements, was required to provide air conditioning and/or sufficient ventilation, and that Touro failed to provide same.

|4Standard of Review and Negligence Burden of Proof

Questions of fact as determined by the factfinder, be it a jury or a judge, are reviewed under the manifest error or clearly wrong standard of review. Sassone v. Doe, 11-1821, pp. 2-3 (La.App. 4 Cir. 5/23/12), 96 So.3d 1243, 1245. Furthermore, “where two permissible views of the evidence exist, the fact finder’s choice between them cannot be manifestly erroneous or clearly wrong.” Sassone, 11-1821, p. 3, 96 So.3d at 1245. In order to reverse findings of the factfinder, “an appellate court must undertake a two-part inquiry: (1) the court must find from the record that a reasonable factual basis does not exist for the finding of the trier of fact; and (2) the court must further determine the record establishes the finding is clearly wrong.” Harold A. Asher, CPA, LLC v. Haik, 12-0771, p. 4 (La.App. 4 Cir. 4/10/13), 116 So.3d 720, 723-24 (citing S.J. v. Lafayette Parish Sch. Bd., 09-2195, p. 12 (La.7/6/10), 41 So.3d 1119, 1127). Lastly, we note that questions of law are reviewed de novo. See First Nat. Bank, USA v. DDS Const., LLC, 11-1418, pp. 10-11 (La.1/24/12), 91 So.3d 944, 952.

A plaintiff must prove five (5) separate elements in order to succeed on a negligence claim: (1) whether the defendant had a duty to conform his conduct to a specific standard of care; (2) whether the defendant’s conduct failed to conform to the appropriate standard of care [breach of duty]; (3) whether the defendant’s substandard conduct was a cause-in-fact of the plaintiffs injuries; (4) whether the defendant’s substandard conduct was a legal cause of the plaintiffs injuries; and (5) whether the plaintiff was damaged. Milbert v. Answering Bureau, Inc., 13-0022, p. 8 (La.6/28/13), 120 So.3d 678 [citations omitted]. Thus, we address the arguments raised by the Appellants in their assignments of error by discussing whether the jury erred in its consideration of the aforementioned elements.

|R1. Duty to Conform to a Specific Standard of Care

The Appellants aver that Touro owed Mr. Falcone two main duties: a duty to provide adequate ventilation, and a duty to protect Mr. Falcone against unreasonable risks of harm.

a. Duty to provide ventilation

Regarding their argument that Touro owed a duty to Mr. Falcone to provide adequate ventilation, the Appellants principally rely upon a prior case decided by our Court, Serou v. Touro Infirmary, 12-0089 (La.App. 4 Cir. 1/9/13), 105 So.3d 1068. Serou involved a wrongful death and survival action filed on behalf of Mr. Falcone’s SHONO roommate, Gordon Serou, Sr. (“Mr. Serou”), who also expired following Hurricane Katrina.

The Appellants aver that this Court set forth a standard in Serou

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
129 So. 3d 641, 2013 WL 5946588, 2013 La. App. LEXIS 2323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/falcone-v-touro-infirmary-lactapp-2013.