Reid v. Ragsdale

702 N.E.2d 367, 1998 Ind. App. LEXIS 2025, 1998 WL 806362
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 23, 1998
DocketNo. 82A01-9802-CV-52
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 702 N.E.2d 367 (Reid v. Ragsdale) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reid v. Ragsdale, 702 N.E.2d 367, 1998 Ind. App. LEXIS 2025, 1998 WL 806362 (Ind. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

OPINION

STATON, Judge.

John Reid, M.D. appeals from the grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants Rex Ragsdale, M.D.; John K. Browning; Thomas F. Liffick, M.D.; William Wooten, M.D.; and Deaconess Hospital, Inc.1 Reid raises three issues for our review, one of which is dispositive. That issue is: whether the trial court érred in finding that a judge’s approval of an involuntary commitment was an efficient intervening cause, thereby cutting off the doctors’ liability.

We affirm.

Reid was involuntarily committed to a mental hospital on the night of January 12, 1995. The facts leading up to this commitment are as follows: On January 11, 1995, Dr. Wooten, chairman of the Physician’s Assistance Committee of Vanderburgh County, called Dr. Liffick, the medical director of the Southwestern Indiana Mental Health Center, to inquire about involuntary commitment procedures, explaining that a doctor at Deaconess Hospital was a potential danger to himself and others. The following day, Dr. Wooten called Dr. Liffick and asked that involuntary commitment proceedings be initiated for Reid. Browning, the executive director of the Southwestern Indiana Mental Health Center, signed the Application for Emergency Detention, alleging that Reid may be a potential danger to himself or others and that he should be involuntarily committed. Dr. Liffick filled out the Physician’s Emergency Statement form, alleging that Reid might be mentally ill and dangerous, based on information he had received from Dr. Ragsdale, a vice president at the hospital where Reid worked. Around 3:30 that afternoon, Dr. Liffick called a trial court judge and asked that the judge authorize Reid’s detention and commitment. The judge agreed, based on information that Dr. Liffick recited to him over the phone.2 The [369]*369application for emergency detention was subsequently signed by another judge.

Reid brought a medical malpractice action against all of the doctors involved in his emergency commitment, as well as Browning, who had filled out a portion of the application. The doctors and Browning sought a preliminary determination of law, asking the court to enter summary judgment based on the fact that there was no doctor-patient relationship between any of the defendants and Reid, or that even if such a relationship existed, the defendants were not the proximate cause of Reid’s harm. The trial court entered summary judgment for the doctors, finding that no physician-patient relationship existed.3 In addition, the trial court found that the judge’s approval of the emergency commitment was an efficient intervening cause of the harm, and that none of the named defendants was the proximate cause of Reid’s injury. Reid appeals.

Summary judgment is appropriate only when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Ind. Trial Rule 56(C). The burden is on the moving party to prove there are no genuine issues of material fact and he is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Once the movant has sustained this burden, the opponent must respond by setting forth specific facts showing a genuine issue for trial; he may not simply rest on the allegations of his pleadings. Stephenson v. Ledbetter, 596 N.E.2d 1369, 1371 (Ind.1992). At the time of filing the motion or response, a party shall designate to the court all parts of pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions, matters of judicial notice, and any other matters on which it relies for purposes of the motion. T.R. 56(C).

In this case, the trial court entered specific findings of fact and conclusions of law thereon. Specific findings and conclusions are neither required nor prohibited in the summary judgment context. Althaus v. Evansville Courier Co., 615 N.E.2d 441, 444 (Ind.Ct.App.1993), reh. denied. Although specific findings aid appellate review, they are not binding on this court. Id. Instead, when reviewing an entry of summary judgment, we stand in the shoes of the trial court. We do not weigh evidence, but will consider the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Reed v. Luzny, 627 N.E.2d 1362, 1363 (Ind.Ct.App.1994), reh. denied, trans. denied. We may sustain a summary judgment upon any theory supported by the designated materials. T.R. 56(C).

Reid contends that the trial court erred in finding that the judge’s approval of the Application for Emergency Detention was an efficient intervening cause. We disagree. The emergency detention statute, specifically Ind.Code §§ 12-26-5-1 and 2 (1993 and Supp.1994), sets forth the process for obtaining an emergency detention. The application for such detention must contain both:

(1) a statement of the applicant’s belief that the individual is
(A) mentally ill and either dangerous or gravely disabled; and
(B) in need of immediate restraint, and
(2) a statement by at least one (1) physician that, based on ...
(B) information given the physician, the individual may be mentally ill and either dangerous or gravely disabled.

IC 12-26-5-l(b). In addition, the application must be endorsed by a judicial officer who is authorized to issue a warrant. IC 12-26-5-2(a).

The trial judge relied on Rhiver v. Rietman, 148 Ind.App. 266, 265 N.E.2d. 245 (Ind.Ct.App.1970), trans. denied, in entering summary judgment on the efficient intervening cause. In Rhiver, a man was placed in a mental institution after a commitment proceeding, wherein the defendant doctor had submitted what the man claimed was negligent information about his mental state. The Rhiver court held that “the responsibility for determination of a citizen’s need for institutional mental treatment has been [370]*370placed by the Indiana Supreme Court in the committing judge.” Id. 265 N.E.2d at 249 (citing In Re Mast, 217 Ind. 28, 31, 25 N.E.2d 1003 (1940)). Further, the court in Rhiver held that while the opinion of the doctor weighs heavily in such a proceeding, the ultimate decision whether or not to confine the person is the judge’s. Therefore, even if the doctor’s examination and report to the judge were negligent, that negligence could not be the proximate cause of the commitment. Id. (citing Mezullo v. Maletz, 331 Mass. 233, 118 N.E.2d 356, 358 (1954)).

Reid argues that the judge was negligently given false or unverified information, and thus, that the doctors who provided that information were the proximate cause of his harm. Even assuming the doctors were negligent, Rhiver makes clear that negligent behavior cannot be the proximate cause of the harm, because of the committing judge’s intervention.

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Bluebook (online)
702 N.E.2d 367, 1998 Ind. App. LEXIS 2025, 1998 WL 806362, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reid-v-ragsdale-indctapp-1998.