 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Budding v. SSM Healthcare System5/30/2000
e alleged were defectively designed implants. She suggested implants made of teflon were prone to excess fragmentation and wear. Since teflon is extremely bioreactive, this increases the chance a giant cell foreign body reaction will occur, similar to hers, causing the destruction of bone and tissue. As noted above, this argument failed to persuade the jury, which returned a verdict in favor of Hospital.
II.
Budding's first claim on appeal asserts the trial court erred in requiring the use of the word "sale" instead of "transfer" in the verdict directing instruction relating to products liability. This claim of error assumes that a health care provider is strictly liable for a products liability claim where the health care provider "transfers" a defective medical device to a patient. Because the Court concludes that chapter 538 forecloses any such claims for strict products liability, the Court need not reach the question presented.
Section 538.205(5) defines "Health care services" to include the "transfer to a patient of goods or services . . . in furtherance of the purposes for which an institutional healthcare provider is organized." (Emphasis added).
Section 538.225.1 mandates:
In any action against a health care provider for damages for personal injury or death on account of the rendering of or failure to render health care services, the plaintiff or his attorney shall file an affidavit with the court stating that he has obtained the written opinion of a legally qualified health care provider which states that the defendant health care provider failed to use such care as a reasonably prudent and careful health care provider would have under similar circumstances and that such failure to use such reasonable care directly caused or directly contributed to cause the damages claimed in the petition.
The affidavit must be filed within ninety days after the filing of the petition unless extended for good cause. Sec. 538.225.4. If a plaintiff fails to file such affidavit, the trial court may dismiss the petition. Sec. 538.225.5.
The Court's role in interpreting these statutes is to "ascertain the intent of the legislature from the language used, to give effect to that intent if possible, and to consider the words used in their plain and ordinary meaning." State ex rel. Riordan v. Dierker, 956 S.W.2d 258, 260 (Mo. banc 1997). In determining the legislature's intent in adopting the various provisions of chapter 538, several conclusions are obvious. First, by using the words "any action" in sec. 538.225.1, the legislature clearly demonstrated its intent that the statute not only apply to a negligence action but to a products liability action as well. Second, the legislature intended the provisions of the chapter to apply not only to services but to transfers of goods to a patient in furtherance of a health care institution's purpose. Third, the legislature intended to impose specific limitations on the traditional tort causes of action available against a health care provider. Included in these limitations is not only a cap on non-economic damages, sec. 538.210, and structured settlements of future damages, sec. 538.220, but the requirement that the cause of action be dependent upon an affidavit by a "legally qualified health care provider" of failure to exercise reasonable care attributable to the defendant health care provider, sec. 538.225.
It is true that nothing in the statute specifically requires the plaintiff to prove negligence or other level of culpability in order to recover. However, in construing the statute, the Court is not to assume the legislature intended an absurd result. Akers v. Warson Garden Ap
Page 1 2 3 4 Missouri Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|