Austin, et al. v. Wells


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Docket Number: 2004-IA-01251-SCT

Supreme Court: Opinion Link
Opinion Date: 01-19-2006
Opinion Author: Carlson, J.
Holding: Reversed and Remanded

Additional Case Information: Topic: Venue - M.R.C.P. 82(b) - Section 11-11-3 - Causal connection
Judge(s) Concurring: Smith, C.J., Waller and Cobb, P.JJ., Dickinson and Randolph, JJ.
Non Participating Judge(s): Diaz, J.
Dissenting Author : Easley and Graves, JJ.
Procedural History: Bench Trial
Nature of the Case: CIVIL - OTHER

Trial Court: Date of Trial Judgment: 06-07-2004
Appealed from: Jefferson County Circuit Court
Judge: Lamar Pickard
Disposition: Denied Appellant's Motion to Transfer Venue
Case Number: 2002-358

  Party Name: Attorney Name:  
Appellant: JOSEPH AUSTIN, M.D. AND VICKSBURG HEALTHCARE, LLC




LEE DAVIS THAMES, JR., R. E. PARKER, JR., ROBERT L. GIBBS, TESELYN AFRIQUE FUNCHES



 

Appellee: KATHY WELLS AND CURTIS WELLS, SR. CARROLL RHODES, E. VINCENT DAVIS  

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Topic: Venue - M.R.C.P. 82(b) - Section 11-11-3 - Causal connection

Summary of the Facts: Kathy Wells, and her husband, Curtis Wells, both adult resident citizens of Jefferson County, claim that Mrs. Wells’s doctor, Joseph Austin, M.D., a resident of Warren County, was negligent in treating Mrs. Wells to the extent that Dr. Austin not only failed to provide her with information about the risks and alternatives associated with her condition so as to facilitate her informed consent, but he also failed to properly treat the complications that arose in the months following surgery. The surgery was performed at Parkview Regional Medical Center in Warren County. Kathy and Curtis Wells, Sr., filed their complaint against Jefferson County Hospital, Vicksburg Healthcare, LLC and Dr. Joseph. Vicksburg Healthcare and Dr. Austin filed a joint motion to transfer venue in which they claimed JCH had been fraudulently included in the suit for purposes of establishing venue in Jefferson County, and that the Wellses had not presented the court with a reasonable claim of liability against JCH. Through their motion, the defendants sought a transfer of venue to Warren County. The court denied the defendants’ joint motion to transfer venue. The Supreme Court subsequently denied the defendants’ petition for interlocutory appeal. Dr. Austin renewed his motion to transfer venue, and, after the Wellses filed their response, Vicksburg Healthcare joined Dr. Austin’s renewed motion. The circuit court again denied the defendants’ motion to transfer venue and again denied the defendants’ joint motion to certify interlocutory appeal. However, the Supreme Court granted the defendants’ petition for interlocutory appeal.

Summary of Opinion Analysis: M.R.C.P. 82(b) provides that except as provided by this rule, venue of all actions shall be as provided by statute. Section 11-11-3 provides that venue will lie in a county where a legitimate defendant resides or where a substantial alleged act or omission occurred. Pursuant to statute, a plaintiff selects among permissible venues. The substance of Mrs. Wells’s claim against JCH relies on a causal connection between the hospital’s alleged failure to perform an arterial blood gas and the three extra days of pain Mrs. Wells endured between her visit to JCH and St. Dominic. Mrs. Wells argues that if JCH had hospitalized her and performed the test for pulmonary embolus, it might have discovered the existence of an infected hematoma and an ovarian vein thrombosis, which were the cause for her continued pain. The defendants argue that the alleged negligence related to JCH’s determination not to perform a test designed to discover a pulmonary embolus can in no way be causally linked to the abdominal pain or femoral nerve damage on which Mrs. Wells bases her claim for damages and since there is no reasonable claim against JCH, venue in Jefferson County is improper. Where an action is properly brought in a county in which one of the defendants resides, it may be retained notwithstanding there is a dismissal of the resident defendant, provided the following exists – the action was begun in good faith in the bona fide belief that plaintiff had a cause of action against the resident defendant; the joinder of the local defendant was not fraudulent or frivolous, with the intention of depriving the non-resident defendant of his right to be sued in his own county; and there was a reasonable claim of liability asserted against the resident defendant. When determining whether fraud was involved in the joining of defendants the proper question is not whether the plaintiff's attorney intended to fraudulently establish venue, but whether the facts support inclusion of the defendant upon whom venue is based. In order to establish a reasonable claim against JCH and properly maintain venue in Jefferson County, the Wellses must establish a standard of care owed to Mrs. Wells by JCH, a deviation from that standard of care, and some logical proximate causal relationship between JCH’s deviation and the injury on which Mrs. Wells bases her complaint. While the first two of these elements can be extracted from Dr. Lisa Otey’s expert testimony, the basis of these elements has no causal connection to Mrs. Wells’s injury. Moreover, Mrs. Wells’s claim for damages against JCH depends on the hospital’s failure to perform a test designed to discover an affliction from which Mrs. Wells did not suffer. The causal connection offered by the Wellses in support of their malpractice claim against JCH is tenuous at best. Moreover, the only act of negligence offered by their expert witness is completely premised on the necessity of the JCH staff ordering an arteriogram/arterial blood gas. Such a test is performed when there are present symptoms indicating that one is afflicted with a pulmonary embolus. Interestingly, no such symptoms were recorded. Because the Wellses failed to establish a proper factual basis to support a reasonable claim of liability against JCH, venue in Jefferson County is improper. The trial court erred in denying the defendants’ motion to transfer venue from Jefferson County to Warren County.


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