Marks v. St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital

229 S.W.3d 396, 2007 WL 1300126
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 17, 2007
Docket01-04-00228-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 229 S.W.3d 396 (Marks v. St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marks v. St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, 229 S.W.3d 396, 2007 WL 1300126 (Tex. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinions

OPINION ON REMAND

SAM NUCHIA, Justice.

Appellant, Irving W. Marks, appeals from a final order dismissing his claims against appellee, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital (“St. Luke’s”), for failure to file expert reports as required by statute for health care liability claims. In our original opinion, we held that appellant’s underlying complaint in his original petition related to premises liability, not medical liability, and that appellant’s complaint was governed by an ordinary standard of care. We reversed the trial court’s order dismissing appellant’s claims and remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings.1

Subsequent to our opinion, the Texas Supreme Court concluded that a patient’s claims that a nursing home’s negligence in fading to provide adequate supervision and nursing services proximately caused her injuries from a sexual assault by another patient could be characterized as a departure from accepted standards of safety and were therefore governed by the Medical Liability Insurance Improvement Act (the MLIIA).2 See Diversicare General Partner, Inc. v. Rubio, 185 S.W.3d 842 (Tex.2005). On St. Luke’s petition for review of our opinion, the supreme court vacated our judgment and remanded the case for further consideration in light of that Court’s decision in Diversicare.3

On remand, we must first consider whether, in light of Diversicare, appellant’s complaint is governed by the MLI-IA. Because we conclude that appellant’s original petition asserted a departure from accepted safety standards and is therefore a health care liability claim, we must also consider whether the trial court abused its discretion in denying appellant’s motion for a grace period in which to file his experts’ reports to support his claim. We hold that the trial court did not abuse its discretion and affirm the trial court’s judgment.

Statement of Facts

In his original petition, appellant alleged the following facts:

[399]*3995. On or about March 24, 2000, Irving Marks, a 66-year old man, suffered severe injuries after a fall from his hospital bed at St. Luke’s.
6. Mr. Marks was admitted to St. Luke’s on March 17, 2000; to undergo treatment for chronic intractable failed back symptomatology and intractable radiculopathy after five lumbar operations failed to cure Mr. Marks’ severe back problems.
7. On March 17, 2000, Mr. Marks underwent surgery to implant an intra-thecal morphine pump catheter. Immediately following his surgery, Mr. Marks began his morphine treatment with an initial dose of .25 milligrams, and Mr. Marks’ morphine doses were raised incrementally up to four milligrams on the ninth day.
8. After his surgery and his morphine treatment, Mr. Marks’ condition improved drastically until Mr. Marks fell the night of March 24,2000.
9. At the time of his fall, Mr. Marks was getting up from his hospital bed in the middle of the night, and Mr. Marks was in an upright position sitting at or near the foot of his hospital bed. Mr. Marks placed his hand on the hospital bed’s footboard to push himself up to a standing position. As he was pushing himself up, the hospital bed’s footboard fell off causing Mr. Marks to fall to the floor.
10. Mr. Marks suffered severe personal injuries as a result of the fall.

Appellant asserted that St. Luke’s “breached the duty of ordinary care owed to Mr. Marks” in the following ways:

a.By failing to properly train and supervise any and all agents, employees, servants, and nursing staff when caring for Mr. Marks to prevent and protect him from falls and injuries;
b. By failing to provide Mr. Marks with the assistance he required for daily living activities;
c. By failing to provide Mr. Marks with a safe environment in which to receive treatment and recover; and
d. By providing Mr. Marks with a hospital bed that had been negligently attached and assembled by [St. Luke’s] employees, agents, servants or nursing staff.

Appellant did not file any expert’s report within 180 days of filing his original petition. Appellant’s second amended petition alleged additional acts of negligence, including the following:

d. Failing to properly monitor Mr. Marks;
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h. Failing to ensure that adequate policies and procedures were in place for the hiring, training and supervision of the nursing staff at the hospital; and
i. Fading to ensure that the person(s) hired to work at the hospital had a sufficient understanding of safety concerns for the patients and was competent to formulate policies and procedures for patient safety and quality assurance.

Believing that these additional claims might have asserted health care liability claims under Texas law, appellant filed two experts’ reports within 180 days of filing his second amended petition. St. Luke’s filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that the claims asserted by appellant in his original petition also constituted health care liability claims as defined in the MLIIA, and that appellant had failed to provide expert reports within 180 days of the original fifing, as required by that statute. After the hearing on St. Luke’s motion, appellant filed a motion to extend the time for [400]*400filing the reports, arguing that he did not intend the original petition to assert a health care liability claim and therefore believed that expert reports were not required. The trial court found that the original petition did assert health care liability claims, denied appellant’s motion to extend the time to file expert reports, and granted St. Luke’s motion to dismiss.

Standard of Review

A dismissal under the MLIIA is generally reviewed under an abuse of discretion standard. Jackson v. Reardon, 14 S.W.3d 816, 818 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2000, no pet.). However, to the extent resolution of this issue requires interpretation of the statute itself, we review under a de novo standard. Ponce v. El Paso Healthcare Sys., Ltd., 55 S.W.3d 34, 36 (Tex.App.-El Paso 2001, pet. denied) (citing Johnson v. City of Fort Worth, 774 S.W.2d 653, 656 (Tex.1989)). The MLIIA provides the following definitions pertinent to our case:

“Health care” means any act or treatment performed or furnished, or which should have been performed or furnished, by any health care provider for, to, or on behalf of a patient during the patient’s medical care, treatment, or confinement.
“Health care provider” means any person, partnership, professional association, corporation, facility, or institution duly licensed or chartered by the State of Texas to provide health care as a registered nurse, hospital, dentist, podiatrist, pharmacist, or nursing home, -or an officer, employee, or agent thereof acting in the course and scope of his employment.

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Bluebook (online)
229 S.W.3d 396, 2007 WL 1300126, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marks-v-st-lukes-episcopal-hospital-texapp-2007.