McMackin v. Johnson County Healthcare Center

2004 WY 44, 88 P.3d 491, 2004 Wyo. LEXIS 52, 2004 WL 856833
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedApril 22, 2004
Docket01-214
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 2004 WY 44 (McMackin v. Johnson County Healthcare Center) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McMackin v. Johnson County Healthcare Center, 2004 WY 44, 88 P.3d 491, 2004 Wyo. LEXIS 52, 2004 WL 856833 (Wyo. 2004).

Opinions

HILL, Chief Justice.

[¶ 1] We previously reversed the district court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of Appellees, Johnson County Healthcare Center (JCHC), Mark Schueler, M.D. (Dr. Schueler), Lawrence E. Kirven, M.D. (Dr. Kirven), Jennifer Sather, R.N. (Nurse Sather), and Vicki Blakely, L.P.N. (Nurse Blakely). We determined that there were genuine issues of material fact precluding summary judgment and in doing so, we recognized what is known as the “loss of chance doctrine.” McMackin v. Johnson County Healthcare Center, 2003 WY 91, 73 P.3d 1094 (Wyo.2003). The facts of this case are set out in that opinion.

ISSUE

[¶ 2] JCHC, Drs. Schueler and Kirven, and Nurses Sather and Blakely filed a petition for rehearing; By order entered on September 4, 2003, we granted that petition for rehearing in part. The subject of the rehearing was limited to this issue:

This Court erroneously adopted the “loss of chance” doctrine in this wrongful death action which is governed by statutes permitting recovery only for an actual death proximately caused by fault and the adoption of this doctrine improperly constitutes a waiver of sovereign immunity which only the legislature can grant.

Our discussion will be strictly limited to that somewhat compound issue. We will, in essence, sustain our original decision and provide some further guidance to the parties and the district court. An outline of the resolution we will embrace is well articulated by McMaekin’s summary of her argument:

1.Under the approach to the loss of chance doctrine adopted by this Court in McMackin, as more fully described in McKellips v. Saint Francis Hospital, Inc., 741 P.2d 467, 474-77 (Okla.1987), Alberts v. Schultz, [1999-NMSC-015, ¶¶ 10-33, 975 P.2d 1279, ¶¶ 10-33 (NM 1999) ], and other authorities referred to in its opinion, the patient’s ultimate death, and not the lost chance itself, is the relevant harm when determining proximate cause.
2. Since the patient’s ultimate death, and not the lost chance itself, is the relevant harm under the loss of chance doctrine adopted by this Court (in those cases where death results from the lost chance), Appellant’s claims against Appellees are within the actions permitted under the Wyoming Wrongful Death statute, [Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 1-38-101 (LexisNexis 2003) ] and the' Wyoming Governmental Claims Act, Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 1-39-109 and 110 (LexisNexis 2003).
3. A majority of other states have adopted the loss of chance doctrine; such states have wrongful death statutes identical or similar to Wyoming’s Wrongful Death statute, ... and such states have considered and rejected the arguments against such adoption urged by Appellees herein.
4. The “pure form” of the loss of chance doctrine, which recognizes a lost chance of survival as an injury apart from death, is distinct from the loss of chance doctrine adopted by this Court that only affects the quantum of proof needed to establish proximate cause in wrongful death cases alleging medical malpractice.
5. Application of the loss of chance doctrine in this case does not place Appellant’s claims outside of the immunity waiver of [Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 1-39-109 and 110].

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[¶ 3] A petition for rehearing is granted to address an assertion that this Court has erred in its resolution of the case. W.R.A.P. 9.07. The office of rehearing is to point out and have considered mistakes or errors of law or of fact, or both, which it is claimed the court has made in reaching its conclusion, or to present to the court and have considered some point which it overlooked or failed to consider, by reason whereof its decision is [493]*493alleged to be erroneous. 5 C.J.S. Appeal and Error § 676 (1993); Elmer v. State, 466 P.2d 375, 376 (Wyo.1970), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 845, 91 S.Ct. 90, 27 L.Ed.2d 82 (1970).

DISCUSSION

Application of Wrongful Death Statute

[¶4] The argument presented conjures up a statutory hurricane from which we are asked to pluck a wind-borne feather. We are unable to spot a hurricane in that argument and are thus unwilling to grasp for the feather. As a beginning point, it is asserted that McMackin may not maintain a wrongful death claim in these circumstances. The relevant statute provides:

§ 1-38-101. Actions for wrongful death which survive; proceedings against executor or administrator of person liable.
Whenever the death of a person is caused by wrongful act, neglect or default such as would have entitled the party injured to maintain an action to recover damages if death had not ensued, the person who would have been liable if death had not ensued is liable in an action for damages, ■ even though the death was caused under circumstances as amount in law to murder in the first or second degree or manslaughter. If the person liable dies, the action may be brought against the executor or administrator of his estate. If he left no estate within the state of Wyoming, the court may appoint an administrator upon application.

Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 1-38-101 (LexisNexis 2003).

[¶ 5] In the original opinion we have adequately explained the foundations of, as well as the wide acceptance of, the loss of chance doctrine and we will not iterate that material here. Those same materials make clear that loss of chance resists precise definition and is subject to varying interpretations and different applications. In some jurisdictions it is allowed as a wrongful death action where the consequences of the negligent act(s) is, in fact, death. Where the result of the negligence is not death, traditional negligence/medical malpractice principles apply. In some jurisdictions, loss of chance claims are allowed as a survivorship ■ claim. In some jurisdictions it is treated as a common law cause of action or a stand-alone theory of recovery. We are comfortable that the loss of chance claim asserted in this matter fits within Wyoming’s wrongful death statute, although it may expand to some limited extent our previous pronouncements in this area of the law. We might retreat to a recognition of loss of chance as a stand-alone .theory or as a common law claim, but we are unable to. detect an erosion of the legislature’s intent or an intractable conflict with our existing precedents in ruling as we do. We are exhorted that the only injury that may be vindicated by the wrongful death statute is “death.” The recognition of Mrs. Brown’s loss of a.chance “to live,” as being actionable, within the context of the wrongful death statute, does not strain the bounds of reason, logic,-or the law.

[¶ 6] The Supreme Court of Wisconsin recognized that loss of chance has its roots in the Restatement' (Second) of Torts § 323(a):

... The majority of jurisdictions, however, have interpreted sec. 323(a) as lessening the plaintiffs burden of proof on causation .... Once the plaintiff shows that the defendant’s negligence' increased the risk that the plaintiffs injury would occur, sec. 323(a) allows the trier of fact to determine whether the negligence was a substantial factor in causing the injury....
This court has previously approved of sec. 323(a)....

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McMackin v. Johnson County Healthcare Center
2004 WY 44 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2004 WY 44, 88 P.3d 491, 2004 Wyo. LEXIS 52, 2004 WL 856833, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcmackin-v-johnson-county-healthcare-center-wyo-2004.