Was plaintiff's expert witness' medical report sufficient?(Legal Focus on Hospital Law Issues)

CASE ON POINT: Craig v. Dearbonne, 2009-TX-0213.2456 (2/12/2009)-TX

ISSUE: Expert medical reports can be critical to a case.

CASE FACTS: Thomas Dearbonne, individually, and as wrongful death beneficiary of Betty Dearbonne. Sued Dr. Susan Kay Craig, and Mid County Family Physicians Associates. Dearbonne alleged in his complaint that Betty was admitted to Mid-Jefferson Hospital On January 25, 2005, after visiting the emergency room with complaints of difficulty breathing, pleuritic, fever, and chills. According to the Complaint, Dr. Craig noted at that time that Betty had a several-week history of upper respiratory infection and shortness of breath, and she diagnosed Betty with right-sided pneumonia. The complaint further alleged that Betty's condition deteriorated alter she was admitted to the hospital, and that a cardiologist subsequently diagnosed arterial occlusion and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). Betty Dearbonne died on February 2, 2005. The plaintiff alleged that the defendants' negligent treatment proximately caused Betty's death, for which the plaintiff sought damages under the Texas Wrongful Death Act. The plaintiff filed an expert report by Dr. Lige Rushing, Jr. The defendants filed a motion to dismiss challenging Dr. Rushing's qualifications and arguing that the report's statement of causation was conclusory. The trial court denied the motion and the appellants filed an interlocutory appeal. The Court of appeals of Texas. The Court of Appeals of Texas reversed that order and remanded the case to the trial court for consideration of whether to permit a thirty-day extension to cure deficiencies in the report. The trial court granted the extension, and the plaintiff timely presented a supplemental reports. The defendants filed a second motion to dismiss. The trial court denied that motion and the defendants filed an interlocutory appeal. The Court of Appeals of Texas held that a plaintiff asserting a healthcare liability claim must provide and expert report to each defendant physician or healthcare provider against whom he asserts a healthcare liability claim. The expert report must provide a fair summary of the expert's opinions, as of the date of the re port, on the applicable standards of care, the manner in which the care rendered boy the physician or the healthcare provider failed to meet the standards, and the causal relationship between that failure and the injury, harm, or damages claimed. The report must address the three elements with sufficient specificty to inform the defendant of the conduct the plaintiff has questioned, and to provide a basis for the trial court to conclude the claims are meritorious. However, the report need not marshal all of the plaintiff's proof.

COURT'S OPINION: The Court of Appeals of Texas affirmed the judgment of the trial court, which denied the hospitals' motion to dismiss. The court held, inter alia, that a trial court can grant a motion challenging an expert's report's adequacy "only if it appears to the court, after hearing, that the report does not represent an objective good faith effort to comply with the definition of an expert report in the applicable ...