Garza v. Scott & White Memorial Hospital

234 F.R.D. 617, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42382, 2005 WL 3832687
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Texas
DecidedNovember 14, 2005
DocketNo. A 05 CA 264 SS
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 234 F.R.D. 617 (Garza v. Scott & White Memorial Hospital) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garza v. Scott & White Memorial Hospital, 234 F.R.D. 617, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42382, 2005 WL 3832687 (W.D. Tex. 2005).

Opinion

ORDER

SPARKS, District Judge.

BE IT REMEMBERED on the 25th day of October 2005, the Court called the above-styled cause for a hearing, and the parties appeared through counsel. Before the Court were Defendants Scott and White Memorial Hospital and Scott, Sherwood, and Brindley Foundation (“Scott and White”) and Craig Staebel’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings, Motion to Sever, and Motion for Sanctions [# 18] and Plaintiffs’ Motion to Compel Discovery from Defendants Staebel and Scott and White [# 16]. Having considered the motions, responses, and replies, the arguments of counsel at the hearing, the relevant law, and the case file as a whole, the Court now enters the following opinion and orders.

Background

Plaintiffs Ruth Rivera Garza, individually and as executrix of the Estate of Jimmy M. Garza, Deceased, and as next friend of Jimmy Junior Garza, Steffane Marie Garza, and Joe Angel Garza, and Georgia Rivera Garza bring this action against Defendants Scott and White, Staebel, and the United States of America for their role in the alleged wrongful death of Jimmy M. Garza. Ruth Rivera Garza is the surviving spouse of Jimmy M. Garza. The remaining plaintiffs are Mr. Garza’s sons and daughters. According to Plaintiffs, Mr. Garza underwent laparoscopic surgery at the Central Texas Veteran’s Health Care System (“CTVHCS”) on November 5, 2002. Defendant Staebel, a surgical resident employed by Scott and White, performed the surgery under the supervision of Dr. Vijay Mehta, a staff surgeon at Olin E. Teague Veterans’ Center. According to Plaintiffs, Garza suffered a perforation of the small intestine during the course of his surgery, which resulted in numerous adverse health effects and ultimately caused his death. Based on these facts, Plaintiffs assert Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”) claims against the United States of America based on the negligent acts and omissions of CTVHCS’s agents and employees. Plaintiffs also assert common law negligence claims against Defendants Staebel and Scott and White.

Staebel and Scott and White now move the Court for judgment on the pleadings, to sever, and for sanctions against Plaintiffs on the grounds that Plaintiffs failed to file an expert report within 120 days of filing suit pursuant to § 74.351 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. Plaintiffs, on the other hand, have moved the Court for an order compelling Staebel and Scott and White to produce certain items related to Staebel’s personnel file and employment records at Scott and White. The Court considers each motion in turn.

Discussion

I. Staebel and Scott and White’s Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings, to Sever, and for Sanctions

Staebel and Scott and White contend that under § 74.351 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, Plaintiffs’ failure to file expert reports concerning the alleged medical malpractice of Defendants within 120 days of bringing suit requires the dismissal of Plaintiffs’ claims and an award of sanctions in their favor.

Section 74.351 requires a plaintiff who has initiated an action on “a health care liability claim” to serve on each party “not later than the 120th day after the date the claim was filed ... one or more expert reports, with a curriculum vitae of each expert listed in the report for each physician or health care provider against whom a liability claim is asserted.” TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE § 74.351(a). The report must provide “a fair summary of the expert’s opinions as of the date of the report regarding applicable standards of care, the manner in which the care rendered by the physician or health care provider failed to meet the standards, and the causal relationship between that failure and the injury, harm or damages claimed.” Id. § 74.351(r)(6). The Texas Supreme Court has indicated that the expert report [621]*621requirement was enacted by the Texas Legislature to serve two functions: (1) to inform the defendants of the specific conduct the plaintiff has called into question; and (2) to deter frivolous claims by providing the trial court with an opportunity to make an initial determination about whether a particular claim has merit. Am. Transitional Care Ctrs. of Tex., Inc. v. Palacios, 46 S.W.3d 873, 879 (Tex.2001).

Section 74.351 curtails the potential for plaintiffs with frivolous claims to burden health care providers with litigation costs in two ways. First, it operates to stay much of the discovery in the case pending the filing of the expert report. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 74.351(s), (u). Second, it provides defendants with an independent procedural mechanism for early dismissal of claims. Under subsection (b) of the statute, if the plaintiff fails to serve any defendant physician or health care provider with the required expert report within 120 days of bringing suit (or some later date, if the parties have agreed to extend the deadline), the court, “on the motion of the affected physician or health care provider, shall, subject to Subsection (c), enter an order that:”

(1) awards to the affected physician or health care provider reasonable attorney’s fees and costs of court incurred by the physician or health care provider; and
(2) dismisses the claim with respect to the physician or health care provider, with prejudice to the refiling of the claim.

Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 74.351(b). A dismissal under § 74.351(b) may be grounded not only on the outright failure of a plaintiff to serve an expert report, but also on a plaintiffs service of a deficient report, such that the plaintiff has failed to demonstrate “an objective good faith effort” to comply with the statutory requirement. Id. § 74.351(c), (l). In this case, Defendants challenge Plaintiffs’ outright failure to serve them with expert reports.

Plaintiffs do not dispute that they did not serve Defendants with expert reports within 120 days of filing this lawsuit. However, they argue that the provisions of § 74.351 are inapplicable in this action on two grounds. First, because §.74.351 is procedural rather than substantive in nature, Plaintiffs contend the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the local rules of this Court preempt its application here. Second, Plaintiffs contend that even if § 74.351 applies in this case, by signing off on the parties’ Joint Proposed Scheduling Order, Defendants entered into a written agreement to extend the 120-day deadline .as contemplated by the statute. The Court considers the question of whether § 74.351 has any application in federal court first.

A. Applicability of Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 74.351 in Federal Court

As a general rule, under the Erie doctrine, when a plaintiff asserts a state law claim in the federal court, the Court looks to state law in determining the substantive law that governs the claims, but it looks to federal law in determining the procedural law to be applied in the action. See Hall v. GE Plastic Pacific PTE Ltd., 327 F.3d 391, 394 (5th Cir.2003) (“Federal courts apply state substantive law when adjudicating diversity-jurisdiction claims, but in doing so apply federal procedural law to the proceedings.”) (quoting Exxon Corp. v. Burglin,

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Bluebook (online)
234 F.R.D. 617, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42382, 2005 WL 3832687, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garza-v-scott-white-memorial-hospital-txwd-2005.