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McKenzie v. Hawaii Permanente Medical Group6/10/2002
k striking Kathryn McKenzie.
Prazosin has several known side effects, including fainting. The McKenzies' expert states that Kaiser doctors were the only physicians in Honolulu who prescribed prazosin. According to the McKenzies' expert, prazosin was not the preferred drug to prescribe in 1997 for the treatment of Wilson's condition; other available medications should have been used to treat Wilson because the use of these other medications would have reduced the risk of an adverse reaction. The McKenzies also state that prazosin is three times cheaper than the other preferred medications. The McKenzies and Wilson argue that Wilson fainted because he took prazosin that morning. Thus, the McKenzies and Wilson allege that Dr. Washecka negligently prescribed prazosin, negligently prescribed an excessive dose of prazosin, and failed to give Wilson sufficient warning of its side effects. Kaiser disputes liability and the contentions of the McKenzies' expert witness and claims that the accident was not in any way caused by the prazosin prescribed to Wilson.
This case was set to begin trial on March 7, 2000. However, on March 6, 2000, Kaiser filed a memorandum requesting certification to this court. Following a hearing that day, the district court postponed the trial pending certification of the aforementioned question. II. DISCUSSION
A prerequisite to any negligence action is the existence of a duty owed by the defendant to the plaintiff that requires the defendant to conform to a certain standard of conduct for the protection of the plaintiff against unreasonable risks. Lee v. Corregedore, 83 Hawaii 154, 158-59, 925 P.2d 324, 328-29 (1996). This court ordinarily addresses whether a defendant owes a duty of care to a particular plaintiff as a question of law. See Blair v. Ing, 95 Hawaii 247, 253, 21 P.3d 452, 458 (2001); Lee, 83 Hawaii at 158, 925 P.2d at 328. The existence of a duty concerns "whether such a relation exists between the parties that the community will impose a legal obligation upon one for the benefit of the other -- or, more simply, whether the interest of a plaintiff who has suffered invasion is entitled to legal protection at the expense of a defendant[.]" Tabieros v. Clark Equip. Co., 85 Hawaii 336, 353, 944 P.2d 1279, 1296 (1997). Because our task is to ascertain whether Dr. Washecka owes a duty to the McKenzies, it necessarily requires a presumption that Dr. Washecka was negligent in his treatment of Wilson. We, therefore, assume, for the purpose of our analysis, that Dr. Washecka was negligent.
The parties to this case present several arguments. Kaiser essentially argues that: (1) it owes no duty to the McKenzies because they are not patients of Dr. Washecka; (2) Dr. Washecka does not have a "special relationship" with Wilson mandating that Dr. Washecka control Wilson's behavior for the McKenzies' benefit; and (3) public policy concerns further compel the conclusion that physicians do not owe a duty to non-patient third parties. According to Kaiser, the social utility of medication usage far outweighs the risk of harm to unrelated non-patients. Kaiser maintains that exposing physicians to liability for harm to such persons would discourage beneficial medication prescriptions and would create "divided loyalties" between physicians and their patients, requiring physicians to choose between the interests of their patients and those of unknown non-patients. The McKenzies, on the other hand, argue that: (1) where -- as here -- the defendant's conduct in negligently prescribing prazosin creates the injury, pursuant to Restatement (Second) of Torts (1965) [hereinafter, Restatement (Second)] ยง 302, foreseeability, rather than the existence of a "special relationsh
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