Oglesby v. Baptist Medical System

891 S.W.2d 48, 319 Ark. 280, 1995 Ark. LEXIS 16
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJanuary 17, 1995
Docket94-547
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 891 S.W.2d 48 (Oglesby v. Baptist Medical System) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oglesby v. Baptist Medical System, 891 S.W.2d 48, 319 Ark. 280, 1995 Ark. LEXIS 16 (Ark. 1995).

Opinion

Robert L. Brown, Justice.

The appellant, Dixie Oglesby, appeals from a summary judgment in favor of appellees Baptist Medical System, Ruth Ann Dollar, and St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. She contends that summary judgment was inappropriately entered because genuine issues of fact remain to be decided. She asserts further that the trial court erred in dismissing her case without disposing of her battery claim. We affirm the trial court’s order.

On May 1, 1992, Dixie Oglesby was admitted to Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock for cardiac monitoring. According to Oglesby’s Second Amended and Substituted Complaint and her affidavit, a nurse at the hospital entered her room on May 4, 1992, and advised her that she was about to administer an injection. Oglesby countered that “she was allergic to everything,” whereupon the nurse responded that she was going to give her a shot of insulin. Oglesby states that she told the nurse that she was not diabetic and directed her not to administer the shot. The nurse then “forcibly” held her down “against her will,” according to Oglesby, and injected her with the insulin. Oglesby adds that she did not receive any medical preparation for the shot.

Following the injection, Oglesby states that she called the nurse on duty by intercom and told her what had happened. The duty nurse contacted one of Oglesby’s physicians, Dr. Duane Velez, who prescribed counteractive measures, which included orange juice and sugar. Oglesby alleges that Dr. Velez told her that the insulin injection “almost got you” and stated that she would have died within 15 minutes without counteractive treatment. She says that fatigue, dizziness, headaches, and a temporary loss of eyesight followed the incident. She contends that most of those symptoms persist and states that she is afraid of hospitals and inoculations as a result of the experience.

On October 7, 1993, Oglesby filed a Second Amended and Substituted Complaint against the appellees for negligence, battery, and the intentional infliction of emotional distress, also known as the tort of outrage. She sought compensatory and punitive damages. With regard to battery, the complaint described the forcible holding against her will and made this claim: “The conduct of Baptist and Ruth Ann Dollar was an unwanted touching of the person of Dixie Oglesby.” The appellants then filed three motions for partial summary judgment: the first motion related to the lack of a basis for punitive damages; the second motion asserted that no genuine issue of material fact existed on the negligence claim and attached the affidavit of Dr. Lawson Glover in support of the motions; and the third motion dealt with lack of sufficient allegations for tort of outrage. That the shot was given in error was admitted by the appellees. None of the motions expressly referred to Oglesby’s battery claim.

The affidavit of Dr. Lawson Glover attached to the second motion for partial summary judgment contained this statement:

I am personally aware of the effect insulin has on the human body. Based upon this and upon my education, training and experience as a physician specializing in the practice of internal medicine and endocrinology, I find no evidence that the immediate symptoms alleged by the plaintiff, persisting symptoms at the present time and any resulting damages were caused by the injection of insulin into her body. The effects of a subcutaneous insulin injection are not immediately noted nor do they persist for more than 12 to 24 hours. In other words, I find no evidence that the insulin injection caused any of the plaintiff’s alleged injuries.

He further averred that Oglesby’s medical records did not show that her condition worsened because of the injection of 20 units of insulin or that she was in a life-threatening situation. No reference was made to the forcible holding or to Oglesby’s direction that the shot not be given.

On January 28, 1994, the trial court entered its order granting summary judgment due to absence of proximate causation. The court relied heavily on Dr. Glover’s affidavit and noted that no countervailing affidavit by an expert was offered by Oglesby to show a genuine issue of material fact. The court cited Dillard v. Resolution Trust Corp., 308 Ark. 357, 824 S.W.2d 387 (1992), for the proposition that Oglesby was required to meet proof with proof. The court then dismissed the case.

I. GLOVER AFFIDAVIT

For her first point, Oglesby attacks Dr. Lawson Glover’s affidavit on several grounds: (1) the amount of insulin administered to Oglesby is in dispute; (2) Dr. Glover relied on Baptist’s answers to interrogatories in formulating his affidavit which included inadmissible hearsay; and (3) Dr. Glover’s affidavit is conclusory.

We have often summarized our standards for summary judgment review:

In these cases, we need only decide if the granting of summary judgment was appropriate based on whether the evidentiary items presented by the moving party in support of the motion left a material question of fact unanswered. Nixon v. H & C Elec. Co., 307 Ark. 154, 818 S.W.2d 251 (1991) . The burden of sustaining a motion for summary judgment is always the responsibility of the moving party. Cordes v. Outdoor Living Center, Inc., 301 Ark. 26, 781 S.W.2d 31 (1989). All proof submitted must be viewed in a light most favorable to the party resisting the motion, and any doubts and inferences must be resolved against the moving party. Lovell v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 310 Ark. 791, 839 S.W.2d 222 (1992); Harvison v. Charles E. Davis & Assoc., 310 Ark. 104, 835 S.W.2d 284 (1992) ; Reagan v. City of Piggott, 305 Ark. 77, 805 S.W.2d 636 (1991). Our rule states, and we have acknowledged, that summary judgment is proper when a claiming party fails to show that there is a genuine issue as to a material fact and when the moving party is entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law. Ark. R. Civ. P. 56(c); Short v. Little Rock Dodge, Inc., 297 Ark. 104, 759 S.W.2d 553 (1988); see also Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317 (1986).

Forrest City Machine Works v. Mosbacher, 312 Ark. 578, 583, 851 S.W.2d 443, 446 (1993); see also Birchfield v. Nationwide Insur., 317 Ark. 38, 875 S.W.2d 502 (1994); Young v. Paxton, 316 Ark. 655, 873 S.W.2d 546 (1994); Bellanca v. Arkansas Power & Light Co., 316 Ark.

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Bluebook (online)
891 S.W.2d 48, 319 Ark. 280, 1995 Ark. LEXIS 16, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oglesby-v-baptist-medical-system-ark-1995.