Randol Mill Pharmacy v. Miller

465 S.W.3d 612, 58 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 733, 2015 Tex. LEXIS 348, 2015 WL 1870058
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedApril 24, 2015
DocketNo. 13-1014
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 465 S.W.3d 612 (Randol Mill Pharmacy v. Miller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Randol Mill Pharmacy v. Miller, 465 S.W.3d 612, 58 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 733, 2015 Tex. LEXIS 348, 2015 WL 1870058 (Tex. 2015).

Opinion

Justice Lehrmann,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

After suffering a severe adverse reaction to a compounded drug administered by her physician, Stacey Miller sued the compounding pharmacy and several of its licensed-pharmacist employees. We are asked whether Miller’s claims against these defendants are health care liability claims subject to the requirements of the Texas Medical Liability Act. If they are, then Miller’s failure to serve them with an expert report pursuant to the Act requires dismissal of her suit. Holding that Miller’s causes of action are not health care liability claims, the trial court denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss, and the court of appeals affirmed. We disagree and reverse the court of appeals’ judgment.

I. Background

In 2011, Dr. Ricardo Tan treated Miller for symptoms related to her previously diagnosed Hepatitis C. He prescribed and administered weekly intravenous injections of 200 mg/ml lipoic acid, an antioxidant supplement. According to Miller’s petition, she underwent nine weeks of treatment without incident. However, she suffered a severe adverse reaction while receiving a lipoic-acid treatment on December 5, 2011. She alleged that, as a result, she was hospitalized for several weeks, received multiple blood transfusions, and is now permanently blind in both eyes. Randol Mill Pharmacy, a licensed compounding pharmacy in Arlington, compounded the particular vial of li-poic acid to which Miller reacted. It was prepared as part of an order Dr. Tan had placed with Randol Mill for twenty-three 30-ml vials of lipoic acid for office use, without reference to any particular patient.

[615]*615Miller and her husband sued Dr. Tan, Randol Mill, and several licensed pharmacists in Randol Mill’s employ.1 The claims against Dr. Tan were dismissed and severed. As to Randol Mill and the individual pharmacists (collectively, the pharmacist defendants), Miller alleged that, “because of negligence in compounding, inadequate and inappropriate warnings and instructions for use, the compounded Lipoic Acid was defective, ineffective and unreasonably dangerous.” Miller also alleged that the pharmacist defendants “breached their implied warranties in the design, manufacture, inspection, marketing, and/or distribution” of the lipoic acid. Miller more specifically alleged that they: failed to confirm the identity, strength, and sterility of the lipoic acid prior to its release; failed to implement a reasonably safe design; failed to manufacture the lipoic acid in a reasonably safe condition; and failed to accompany the lipoic acid with proper warnings regarding possible adverse side effects and with adequate information to medical care providers regarding appropriate use.

Taking the position that Miller had asserted health care liability claims governed by the Texas Medical Liability Act, see Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code §§ 74.001-.507, the pharmacist defendants moved to dismiss Miller’s claims with prejudice for failure to serve an expert report within 120 days of her filing suit, see id. § 74.351. The trial court denied the motion, and a divided court of appeals affirmed,2 holding that the pharmacist defendants were not health care providers, that the claims against them were not health care liability claims, and that the Medical Liability Act therefore did not apply. 413 S.W.3d 844 (Tex.App.-Fort Worth 2013). We granted the pharmacist defendants’ petition for review.

II. Analysis

This case presents issues of statutory interpretation, which we review de novo. Zanchi v. Lane, 408 S.W.3d 373, 376 (Tex.2013). In construing statutes, we start with the “ordinary meaning of the statutory text.”. In re Ford Motor Co., 442 S.W.3d 265, 271 (Tex.2014). We analyze that language in context, considering the specific sections at issue as well as the statute as a whole, CHCA Woman’s Hosp. v. Lidji, 403 S.W.3d 228, 231-32 (Tex.2013).

A. Relevant Provisions of the Texas Medical Liability Act

The Texas Medical Liability Act provides a comprehensive statutory framework governing health care liability claims. Id. at 232. It is intended to strike “a careful balance between eradicating frivolous [health care liability] claims and preserving meritorious ones.” Leland v. Brandal, 257 S.W.3d 204, 208 (Tex.2008). A key component of the Act’s framework is its requirement that the plaintiff serve expert reports early in the litigation process “for each physician or health care provider against whom a [health care] liability claim is asserted.” Tex. Civ. PRAC. & Rem. Code § 74.351(a).3 Failure to comply with this [616]*616requirement results in dismissal of the claim with prejudice upon the health care provider’s motion. Id. § 74.351(b). Miller and the pharmacist defendants dispute whether her claims constitute health care liability claims such that the Medical Liability Act generally, and the expert-report requirement specifically, applies.4

The Act defines “health care liability claim” as

a cause of action against a health care provider or physician for treatment, lack of treatment, or other claimed departure from accepted standards of medical care, or health care, or safety or professional or administrative services directly related to health care, which proximately results in injury to or death of a claimant, whether the claimant’s claim or cause of action sounds in tort or contract.

Id. § 74.001(13). Thus, only claims brought against physicians or health care providers may qualify as health care liability claims. A “health care provider” is “any person, partnership, professional association, corporation, facility, or institution duly licensed, certified, registered, or chartered by the State of Texas to provide health care, including ... a pharmacist.” Id. § 74.001(12)(A)(iv). Employees and independent contractors of health care providers who are acting within the scope of the employment or contractual relationship also qualify as health care providers. Id. § 74.001(12)(B)(ii). Finally, the Act defines “pharmacist” as

one licensed under Chapter 551, Occupations Code, who, for the purposes of this chapter, performs those activities limited to the dispensing of prescription medicines which result in health care liability claims and does not include any other cause of action that may exist at common law against them, including but not limited to causes of action for the sale of mishandled or defective products.

Id. § 74.001(22).

B. General Definition of Health Care Provider vs. Specific Definition of Pharmacist

As an initial matter, we address the pharmacist defendants’ argument that they qualify as health care providers under the term’s general definition irrespective of the more specific definition of pharma[617]*617cist.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
465 S.W.3d 612, 58 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 733, 2015 Tex. LEXIS 348, 2015 WL 1870058, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/randol-mill-pharmacy-v-miller-tex-2015.