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Locust v. Pitt County Memorial Hospital2/6/2004
PUBLISHED
This appeal arises out of a unique set of circumstances bringing into question the interplay between chapter 31A, Acts Barring Property Rights and chapter 29, the Intestate Succession Act, and their effect upon the Wrongful Death Act, N.C.G.S. ยง 28A-18-2. The primary issue is whether chapter 31A should be considered a part of chapter 29 thereby changing the rules of intestacy, for purposes of determining standing in a wrongful death action.
In this case, Helen Locust ("plaintiff") instituted a wrongful death action, and she now appeals from a decision of the North Carolina Court of Appeals affirming the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Pitt County Memorial Hospital Inc., James M. Galloway, M.D., Linda G. Monteith, M.D., and Pitt Family Physicians (collectively "defendants"). For the reasons herein set forth, we reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals and remand this case to that court for further remand to the trial court.
Lester R. Tyson ("decedent") was admitted to Pitt County Memorial Hospital's emergency room on the afternoon of 4 June 1992 for evaluation and treatment related to complaints of abdominal pain and nausea. On 5 June 1992, Pitt County Memorial Hospital admitted decedent as an in-patient and assigned him to a room. Over the next two days, decedent was evaluated and treated by physicians from Pitt County Memorial Hospital's Departments of Hematology and Quadrangle Gastroenterology, as well as East Carolina University Surgery, and decedent's primary care physician, Dr. Galloway. At approximately 8:15 p.m. on 7 June 1992, decedent experienced an onset of seizure activity. After receiving notice of the seizures, Dr. Galloway prescribed medication and ordered a computerized tomography ("CT scan") for decedent. At some point after notifying Dr. Galloway, the hospital staff discovered decedent lying on the floor in the hallway outside his room, suffering from a bleeding traumatic head injury. The nursing staff called for help from the emergency room. Dr. Monteith, an emergency room resident, responded to the call at 10:15 p.m. and sutured decedent's head wound. Decedent's medical condition continued to deteriorate, and Dr. Galloway transferred decedent to the hospital's critical care unit. A second CT scan was ordered by the critical care physicians on the morning of 8 June 1992. This scan, performed at 12:15 p.m. on 8 June 1992, revealed a large right temporal hemorrhage, a ventricular bleed, and a left scalp hematoma. At 1:30 p.m. on the same day, a neurology consult was performed by Dr. John Griffith Steele. Dr. Steele pronounced decedent brain dead at 4:45 p.m. Decedent died at 8:46 p.m. on 8 June 1992. An autopsy of decedent's body disclosed that his cause of death was a traumatic blunt force injury to the head.
At the time of his death, decedent was survived by two brothers, four sisters, and an estranged wife. On 2 June 1994, decedent's sister, plaintiff Helen Locust, qualified as administratrix and filed a complaint alleging negligence against defendants and seeking to recover damages for decedent's wrongful death including: (1) damages for his care, treatment and hospitalization; (2) pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life; (3) mental anguish; (4) funeral expenses; (5) present and future monetary value to his family; and (6) punitive damages. The damages sought reflect the posture of the action as both a survival action wherein the complaint sought damages suffered by decedent prior to his death and a wrongful death action where the family sought compensation for damages it would suffer for the loss of decedent. On 16 November 1994, plaintiff voluntarily dismissed this complaint.
On 17 July 19
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