Searile v. Ville Platte Medical Center, LLC

194 So. 3d 1205, 15 La.App. 3 Cir. 1183, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 1088, 2016 WL 3077789
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 1, 2016
DocketNo. 15-1183
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 194 So. 3d 1205 (Searile v. Ville Platte Medical Center, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Searile v. Ville Platte Medical Center, LLC, 194 So. 3d 1205, 15 La.App. 3 Cir. 1183, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 1088, 2016 WL 3077789 (La. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

KEATY, Judge.

|) Plaintiff, Linda Marie Searile, appeals the trial court’s granting of summary judgment in favor of Defendants, Ville Platte Medical Center, LLC, d/b/a Mercy Regional Medical Center, Lifepoint Holdings 2, LLC, and Lifepoint RC, Inc. (collectively Mercy Regional), and the dismissal of her claims against it with prejudice. For the following reasons, the trial court’s judgment is affirmed.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This premises liability and general negligence matter arose from ant bites sustained by Searile at Mercy Regional where she was a patient receiving treatment for injuries resulting from a different incident. Searile was admitted to Mercy Regional on September 14, 2011, after falling and hitting her head. Her condition deteriorated that evening, and she was transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU). On the morning of September 16, 2011, a nurse entered Searile’s room and saw ants on her upper and outer forearm and in her bed. The attending nurse along with other nurses removed the ants from Searile’s body and bed, and medications were administered to alleviate the pain and itching associated with the bites. She was discharged from Mercy Regional on September 19, 2011.

On September 14, 2012, Searile filed suit against Mercy Regional for damages arising from its alleged negligence, which included the following actions and/or inac-tions:

a.) Failure to maintain safe and clean facility, free from insect, bugs or animals which endanger the safety and care of visitors and patients;
b.) Failure to maintain a proper observation, lookout and/or being distracted or inattentive while taking care of patient in ICU;
j£.) Failure to take all reasonable evasive action to avoid the incident at issue herein; namely, Petitioner, LINDA MARIE SEARILE from being bitten and attacked by ants;
d.) Failure to properly keep maintenance and routine extermination program for the prevention of insect and other rodents;
e.) Failure of the Administration, ICU Supervisors, and Nurse to timely inform the family of the incident;
f.) Acting in violation of the laws of the state of Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, all of which acts may be properly proven at the trial of this matter;
g.) These acts of negligence are pleaded specifically herein and are in addition to other acts of negligence [1207]*1207which will be shown-at the trial of this matter.

Mercy Regional answered and denied liability for damages. It also filed a Motion for Summary Judgment arguing that Searile would be unable to meet her burden of proving negligence based upon premises liability under La.Civ.Code art. 2317.1, which required her to show: “a) that any of the Defendants knew or should, have known of the alleged defect; and/or b) that any of the Defendants failed to exercise reasonable care.” Therein, Mercy Regional also addressed Searile’s general negligence claim asserted in her Petition for Damages by alleging that Searile would be unable to prove that Mercy Regional was “negligent in any way” and/or that it “breached any duty owed to her, i.e., fault.”

After a hearing on July 7, 2015, the trial court orally granted the summary judgment which was reduced to writing in its July 28, 2015 Judgment. Searile appealed.

On appeal, Searile asserts the following assignment of error:

The trial court erred in granting judgment for the Defendant on their Motion for Summary Judgment when the Plaintiffs arguments regarding the veracity of Julie. Paul’s Affidavit, (based off the answer by the Defendant to the-interrogatories) along with the documentary submissions of the Pest Elimination Service Agreement, and the | ^Customer Service Reports, clearly indicate evidence which shows that the Defendant knew or should have known that the ants existed prior to the ant-infestation of September 16, 2011, in the ICU unit, and the hospital did not reasonably do anything to protect the Plaintiff from receiving the ant bites' until after the Plaintiff was attacked and bitten by the ants. Additionally, there clearly exists several “genuine issues of material fact” remaining in the case and the-Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment should have [been] denied and the matter proceed to trial on the merits.
DISCUSSION
The summary judgment procedure of La. Code Civ.P. art. 966(A)(2) “is designed to secure'the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of every action” except in certain designated cases. It is favored and is to be construed to accomplish those ends. Id. The trial court shall enter summary judgment “if the pleadings, dépositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions, together with the affidavits, if any, admitted for purposes of the motion for summary judgment, show that there is no genuine issue as to material fact, and that mover is entitled to judgment as a matter df law.” La.Code Civ.P. art. 966(B)(2).
Further, and although La.Code Civ.P. art. 966(C)(2)' expressly provides that “[t]he burden of proof remains with the movant[,]” the movant’s burden’ does not require him to negate all essential facts of the adverse party’s claim if the mov-ant will not be required to bear the burden of proof at trial. Instead, the movant must “point out to the court that there is an' absence of factual support for one or more elements essential to the adverse party’s claim, action, or defense.” Id. In turn,- thereafter, if “the adverse party fails to produce factual support sufficient to. establish that he will be able to satisfy his evidentiary burden of proof at trial, there is no genuine issue of material fact.” Id.
On appeal, the reviewing court considers a trial court’s grant or denial of a motion for summary judgment under the same criteria that-governed the trial court’s consideration of the motion and [1208]*1208pursuant to the: de novo standard of review.

Baldwin v. CleanBlast, LLC, 14-1026, pp. 4-5 (La.App. 3 Cir. 2/4/15), 158 So.3d 270, 272-73, writ denied, 15-461 (La.5/15/15), 170 So.3d 163.

In her only assignment of error, Searile contends that the trial court erred in granting Mercy Regional’s Motion for Summary Judgment because the evidence showed that it knew or should have known that the ants existed prior to the | incident, and it failed to reasonably do anything to protect her from the ants. Searile claims that genuine issues of material fact exist which preclude the granting of the summary judgment.

I. Premises Liability

Searile’s action against Mercy Regional rests on notions of premises liability under. La.Civ.Code art. 2317,1, which provides, in part:

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194 So. 3d 1205, 15 La.App. 3 Cir. 1183, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 1088, 2016 WL 3077789, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/searile-v-ville-platte-medical-center-llc-lactapp-2016.