Sunsinger v. Perez

16 S.W.3d 496, 2000 Tex. App. LEXIS 2352, 2000 WL 365972
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 6, 2000
Docket09-98-103 CV
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 16 S.W.3d 496 (Sunsinger v. Perez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sunsinger v. Perez, 16 S.W.3d 496, 2000 Tex. App. LEXIS 2352, 2000 WL 365972 (Tex. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinions

OPINION

JOHN HILL, Justice (Assigned).

Hallie Sunsinger appeals from a summary judgment that she take nothing in her claim against Raoul Perez, M.D., a/k/a Ray Perez, individually and d/b/a Raoul Perez, M.D. and Associates. She contends in five issues that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment; in a sixth issue, she urges that the trial court erred by not granting her leave to file a second amended petition.

We affirm because the trial court did not err in granting the summary judgment and because the trial court did not abuse its discretion by not granting Sunsinger leave to file a second amended petition.

This cause of action arose after Dr. Perez, who practices general medicine and family practice, had consensual sexual relations with Sunsinger. In her first amended petition, Sunsinger alleges that she suffered injuries as a result of the negligence, gross negligence, breach of warranty, and/or medical malpractice of Perez as a result of those relations. Specifically, she asserts that he was negligent in: (1) mishandling transference phenomenon and becoming sexually involved with her; (2) failing to properly diagnose her psychological condition; (3) failing to refer her for psychological treatment; and (4) attempting to treat her for psychological [499]*499problems without proper expertise. She further alleges that he was grossly negligent.

Perez moved for summary judgment, presenting evidence that, with respect to all of Sunsinger’s allegations of negligence, his actions were within the applicable standard of care. In her response, Sunsinger asserts that Dr. Perez mischaracterizes her claim when he insists that it is solely a medical malpractice claim; she indicates that it is also a general negligence claim. She insists that Dr. Perez’s affidavit testimony is incompetent because medical records referred to in the affidavit are not attached to the affidavit and because he is not qualified to express his opinion with respect to the standard of care for the diagnosis, care, or treatment of transference. She also argues that Dr. Perez’s affidavit contradicts his deposition testimony, thereby creating a material fact issue. Sunsinger did not present any summary judgment evidence from any health care provider that Dr. Perez’s actions were not within the applicable standard of care.

This is not a no evidence motion for summary judgment. In this type of motion for summary judgment, the movant has the burden of showing that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law; in deciding whether there is a disputed material fact issue precluding summary judgment, evidence favorable to the non-movant will be taken as true; and every reasonable inference must be indulged in favor of the non-movant and any doubts resolved in its favor. Nixon v. Mr. Property Management Co., 690 S.W.2d 546, 548-49 (Tex.1985).

In a case where a defendant physician has presented an affidavit detailing his or her treatment and attesting that his or her actions were within the applicable standard of care and the plaintiff fails to present summary judgment evidence by an appropriate expert that the physician’s actions were not within the applicable standard of care, the trial court does not err in granting summary judgment with respect to the plaintiffs claim for medical malpractice. See Perez v. Cueto, 908 S.W.2d 29, 31-32 (Tex.App. — Houston [14th Dist.] 1995, no writ). The only other claim that Sunsinger asserted was a claim for breach of warranty. Dr. Perez stated in his affidavit that he made no warranties to Sun-singer. She has presented no summary judgment evidence to contradict Dr. Perez’s statement. We therefore conclude that the trial court did not err in granting summary judgment that Sunsinger take nothing as to Dr. Perez.

In issue two, Sunsinger argues that the trial court erred to the extent that it granted summary judgment on one basis asserted by Dr. Perez, that basis being that she failed to allege an actionable case because there is no case for liability based upon sexual relations between a medical doctor, not involved in some type of psychiatric, psychological, or mental therapeutic care, and his or her patient. She insists that Dr. Perez should have brought special exceptions and allowed her to re-plead. She presents no authority that would support the existence of such a cause of action, nor does she state how she could have repleaded in such a way that would have presented a proper cause of action. She appears to assert that there is a cause of action for negligently having sexual relations when there is an existence of any nature of professional relationship and that such a cause of action does not fall within the realm of professional malpractice. She has not presented any authority for such a cause of action, or for her assertion that it would not fall within the realm of professional malpractice, and we are not aware of any. We also note that in granting summary judgment, the trial court did not state upon which grounds it was granting summary judgment; it may very well be that the trial court granted summary judgment upon the basis that we have already related, that being Sunsinger’s failure to present [500]*500summary judgment proof to show that Dr. Perez’s conduct was outside the applicable standard of care. We overrule Sunsinger’s contentions presented in issue two.

Sunsinger asserts in issue three that the trial court erred by granting the summary judgment because Dr. Perez’s affidavit is incompetent. She initially refers us to an isolated statement in his affidavit that, “Based upon that conversation, I believed as of November 12, 1991, and it is my expert opinion that Ms. Sunsinger and I no longer had a physician/patient relationship and that she had terminated it as of that date.” Just previously, Dr. Perez had stated in his affidavit that Sunsinger had informed him on that date that she was moving to the Dallas area, would be seeing another physician there, and would be requesting a copy of her records in the near future. She argues that summary judgment should not be granted because statements of intent in summary judgment evidence are not readily controvertible. We note, however, that in any event her status as a patient is not material because, even if she was a patient, her claim for medical malpractice must fail because she failed to present summary judgment evidence from an appropriate health professional to refute Dr. Perez’s assertion that his conduct was within the applicable standard of care.

Sunsinger also urges that she was not required to present the sworn testimony of a health care provider to refute Dr. Perez’s testimony regarding the standard of care with respect to what she refers to as the transference-phenomenon because he is not an expert psychologist or psychiatrist and he presented no summary judgment testimony of such an expert mental health professional. As previously noted, Dr. Perez is an M.D. who has a general medicine and family practice. Liability in a medical negligence case is determined by a doctor of the same school of practice as the defendant. See Hart v. Van Zandt, 399 S.W.2d 791, 797 (Tex. 1965). Consequently, Dr. Perez’s testimony is competent on the issue of his liability. That being the case, Sunsinger was required, in the face of Dr. Perez’s affidavit, to present the affidavit of an appropriate expert to refute his assertion that his conduct was within the applicable standard of care. Even if Dr.

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Sunsinger v. Perez
16 S.W.3d 496 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2000)

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Bluebook (online)
16 S.W.3d 496, 2000 Tex. App. LEXIS 2352, 2000 WL 365972, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sunsinger-v-perez-texapp-2000.