Hughes v. FREEMAN HEALTH SYSTEM

283 S.W.3d 797, 2009 WL 351095
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 13, 2009
DocketSD 28921
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 283 S.W.3d 797 (Hughes v. FREEMAN HEALTH SYSTEM) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hughes v. FREEMAN HEALTH SYSTEM, 283 S.W.3d 797, 2009 WL 351095 (Mo. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinions

DON E. BURRELL, Presiding Judge.

Margaret Hughes and William Hughes (“Plaintiffs”) brought an action for monetary damages against Freeman Health System (“Hospital”). Margaret Hughes (“Nurse”) had worked as a registei-ed nurse for Hospital but was terminated from that employment on September 3, 2004. Counts I and III of Plaintiffs’ petition claim Nurse had been wrongfully discharged and sought, respectively, compen[798]*798satory and punitive damages. Count II was a claim by Nurse’s husband, William Hughes, for loss of consortium. Hospital filed a motion for summary judgment in its favor as to all three counts. The trial court granted Hospital’s motion and entered the summary judgment from which Plaintiffs now appeal.

Hospital’s motion for summary judgment claimed it established, as a matter of law, that Hospital had terminated Nurse’s employment because Nurse had failed to render proper care to a patient on August 30, 2004, and had failed to accurately inform physicians of the patient’s condition. Plaintiffs’ petition (and Nurse’s subsequent deposition testimony) contended Nurse was terminated because she had refused to rewrite certain progress notes she had made in the patient’s record that were critical of one of Hospital’s physicians.1

Plaintiffs’ sole point on appeal alleges the trial court erred in granting Hospital’s motion for summary judgment because the record shows that a genuine issue of material fact exists as to the actual reason for Nurse’s discharge and that the facts averred by Plaintiffs are sufficient to invoke the “public policy” exception to the employment-at-will doctrine that would otherwise bar Nurse’s claim for wrongful discharge. We grant Plaintiffs’ point and we reverse and remand.

I. Standard of Review

Review of a summary judgment is de novo and its propriety “is purely an issue of law.” ITT Commercial Fin. Corp. v. Mid-America Marine Supply Corp., 854 S.W.2d 371, 376 (Mo. banc 1993). “[W]e do not defer to the trial court’s decision to grant summary judgment. Instead, we use the same criteria the trial court should have employed in initially deciding whether to grant [the] motion.” Barekman v. City of Republic, 232 S.W.3d 675, 677 (Mo.App. S.D.2007). “We view the record in the light most favorable to the party against whom judgment was entered, and we accord that party the benefit of all inferences which may reasonably be drawn from the record.” Id.

II. Facts and Procedural History

Viewing the record before the trial court in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs, the facts are as follows. Nurse, whose professional licensure is governed by The Nursing Practice Act, sections 335.011 to 335.096 (“NPA”), began working for Hospital as an employee-at-will in 1997. On August 30, 2004, Nurse was involved in the care of a patient who had been admitted for depression and alcoholism (“Patient”). Patient began experiencing problems Nurse believed to be a combination of anxiety and extrapyramidal symptoms (“EPS”).2 Nurse attempted to contact Dr. Nauphyll Zuberi, Patient’s attending physician, but was unable to reach him so she called the on-call physician, Dr. Collins. Nurse documented Patient’s symptoms in her progress notes and relayed them to Dr. Collins.3 Nurse asked Dr. Collins to [799]*799allow her to administer Serax (an anti-anxiety drug) earlier than scheduled, but Dr. Collins refused her request. Nurse called Dr. Collins again and told him that Patient’s symptoms were worsening. At Dr. Collins’s request, Nurse read him the list of Patient’s prescribed medications, and Dr. Collins ordered her to administer the drug Haldol.

After Nurse administered the Haldol, Patient’s symptoms increased in intensity. At that point, Nurse asked another nurse to contact Dr. Collins and relay Patient’s latest symptoms to him. This nurse called Dr. Collins and gave Patient Cogentin at Dr. Collins’s direction. Nurse then called Dr. Collins a third time and was given permission to administer the drug Serax “like 45 minutes early, 30 minutes early, somewhere in there.” Another physician came in to observe Patient and, on his orders, Benadryl was administered. After receiving the Benadryl, Patient relaxed and went to sleep. At no time on this date was Nurse ever criticized about the care she had provided to Patient.

Two days later, Nurse was asked by her supervisor (“Supervisor”) and Hospital’s Director of Behavioral Health to “take it out and rewrite” certain portions of her progress notes that had been indicated with brackets. The bracketed portions referred to Dr. Collins’s refusal to allow an early administration of Serax and to his decision to have Cogentin administered to Patient. Hospital had a written policy regarding the writing of nurses’ notes which stated: “[p]reviously written notes shall not be altered at a later date.” Nurse rewrote her progress notes and took the revised version to Supervisor. Supervisor asked Nurse to also return the original progress notes that had been marked with the brackets, but Nurse refused because she had been advised by another employee to do so and “under the circumstances [she] felt like [she] was protecting [herself].”

Later that afternoon, Supervisor brought Nurse the revised copy and said “[t]his isn’t exactly what we wanted” and asked Nurse to make an addendum to the notes. Nurse’s reply to this request was, “Sure. I can make an addendum. What do you want me to say? I’ll say whatever you want, but I won’t lie.” Supervisor then said, “[w]ell, we don’t want to do this” and put the revised progress notes in the shredding machine. Two days later, Hospital terminated Nurse’s employment.

Hospital’s documentation of the reason for Nurse’s termination was set forth in a document entitled, “FREEMAN HEALTH SYSTEM — RECORD OF CORRECTIVE ACTION,” which stated:

Reasonable cause to believe that [Nurse] jeopardized the health and safety of her patient. [Nurse] did not accurately assess a Patient’s [sic] condition which resulted in miscommunication to the physician. [Nurse] failed to tell the physician all of the symptoms which would allow him to determine appropriate treatment. The request for medication made to the physician would not have helped the symptoms [Nurse] documented on the chart.
There is a loss of confidence and trust that [Nurse] can go forward with sound judgement in patient care.
III. Discussion
Generally, an employee who does not have a contract which contains a statement of duration is an employee at-will and may be discharged at any time, with or without cause, and the employer will not be liable for wrongful discharge. Luethans v. Washington Univ., 894 S.W.2d 169, 172 (Mo. banc 1995). However, Missouri courts have recognized public policy exceptions to [800]*800the employment at-will doctrine in Boyle v. Vista Eyewear, Inc., 700 S.W.2d 859 (Mo.App. W.D.1985). See Porter v. Reardon Mach. Co.,

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Hughes v. FREEMAN HEALTH SYSTEM
283 S.W.3d 797 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2009)

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Bluebook (online)
283 S.W.3d 797, 2009 WL 351095, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hughes-v-freeman-health-system-moctapp-2009.