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Watkins v. Lake Charles Memorial Hospital12/15/2004
which the Louisiana Patients' Compensation Fund was responsible. While 2004 La.Acts No. 181, ยง 1 amended the above definition of future medical care and related benefits insofar as those benefits are incurred up to the time of the trial court's ruling, Act 181 was not effective at the time of the ruling in this matter. It is my view that the provision is substantive in nature and, absent contrary legislative expression, subject to prospective application only. See Sawicki v. K/S Stavanger Prince, 01-0528 (La. 12/7/01), 802 So.2d 598. See also La.R.S. 1:2; La.Civ.Code art. 6.
In addition to Section B(1)'s inclusion of accrued medical expenses in the definition of future medical care and related benefits, the Louisiana Supreme Court's statement in Kelty, 633 So.2d 1210, regarding a trial court's limited jurisdiction under the Medical Malpractice Act is again instructive. The supreme court plainly delineated that jurisdiction, stating:
he statutory provisions referring to the courts clearly indicate that they are not vested with original jurisdiction or decision making responsibility over future medical care claims. The courts are authorized to perform two limited functions: (i) certification of whether a malpractice victim is a patient in need, i.e., whether the victim's damages consumed the cap limits without affording her compensation for all actual medical expenses necessitated by the malpractice, La.R.S. 40:1299.43A; and (ii) random and ephemeral housekeeping matters, viz., the court is granted a very limited continuing jurisdiction to award attorney fees when the PCF fails to pay timely, id. 43E(2), and order more frequent physical examinations of a patient, upon reasonable cause. Id. 43G(5).
Id. at 1218. I do not find that the reduction of accrued "future medical care and related benefits" to the type of money judgment decreed by the majority falls within either of these areas of jurisdiction.
Finally, I am aware of the classification of incurred medical expenses as "'future' medical expenses that have already been incurred" in Hall, 848 So.2d at 576. However, in Hall, the supreme court focused on the issue before it, namely the question of whether interest was due on past medical expenses awarded below. It does not appear that the appropriateness of reducing those incurred "future medical expenses" to a money judgment was an issue raised in that case, nor when the case was argued or considered on intermediate appeal. See Hall v. Brookshire Bros., 01-1506 (La.App. 3 Cir. 8/21/02), 831 So.2d 1010. Rather, the arguments and the resulting discussion focused upon whether interest was to be assessed on those past due expenses.
Absent more direct authority from the supreme court than its acceptance of an uncontested judgment in Hall, I find it erroneous for the trial court to have strayed from the plain terms of positive law embodied in La.R.S. 40:1299.43(B)(1) and the supreme court's discussion of the courts' jurisdiction under the Medical Malpractice Act in Kelty. Accordingly, I would reverse the trial court's judgment insofar as it included the accrued medical and related benefits in the money judgment. I would amend the judgment to include these accrued expenses in the trial court's quantification of future medical care and related benefits.
As I find that the accrued expenses must be submitted to the LPCF for the above-reasons, I do not reach the LPCF's alternative contention that the figure awarded for accrued expenses related to past attendant care is excessive.
Interest
I agree with the majority that the judgment should be amended to more fully indicate that interest is to be paid on the $400,000 award fo
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