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Stett v. Greve2/27/2002
WILLIAMS, J., dissents with written reasons.
DREW, J., dissents for the reasons assigned by J. Williams.
Trial on the exception of prescription occurred in this case to determine whether the alleged malpractice of the defendant/therapist prescribed before the institution of suit on August 19, 1996. The therapy rendered by the defendant began in 1989, and the last conversation between the parties was on August 23, 1995, the only time within the year preceding the suit that therapy might have been given.
The defendant presented evidence that the parties terminated the therapeutic relationship in June 1995, and the trial court agreed, dismissing plaintiffs' suit on the exception of prescription. Finding that no continuing tort occurred and that the doctrine of contra non valentem was not proven by plaintiff, we affirm the trial court's ruling.
Facts
In this malpractice case, Diana Stett ("Stett") and her family sued Stett's therapist, Carol Greve ("Greve"), a Board Certified Social Worker. Stett started therapy with Greve in November, 1989, while Stett's suit against a prior therapist was underway. Greve was the treating therapist for the duration of that suit, wherein Stett alleged that she was a victim of therapist abuse. Stett purportedly received a large settlement for the first suit. When Stett began therapy with Greve, her treating psychiatrist was Dr. Douglas Greve, who was also Greve's husband.
The therapy was initially conducted in Shreveport. When Greve moved to New Orleans in January, 1991, therapy was terminated briefly. After four months, and at Stett's request, therapy resumed by telephone.
The therapy sessions were conducted on the condition that Stett continue to see a local therapist in Shreveport and remain under the care of her psychiatrist. Ultimately, Stett's relationship with Greve grew contentious. At the hearing on the exception, Greve described Stett as:
very difficult patient to manage. She was unstable, oppositional, argumentative, very unpredictable, frequently non-compliant especially when it came to taking her medication.
The weekly telephone therapy sessions continued between May, 1991, and November, 1994, except when punctuated by Stett's in-patient psychiatric hospitalizations. Greve testified that she treated Stett only as an outpatient. During Stett's hospitalizations, the psychiatric staff would care for her. Stett would frequently complain to Greve that Greve "wouldn't talk to her enough times, that [Greve] would refuse sessions with her that she couldn't have enough access to [Greve] when she would call." Greve reported that generally, Stett requested extremely frequent and long therapy sessions outside of their scheduled weekly sessions. Stett wrote letters and telephoned Greve frequently.
At the hearing, Greve estimated that Stett sent her as many as 100 letters during the course of therapy. Some letters accuse Greve of treating Stett worse than other patients because of Stett's suit against her former therapist. One letter dated July 22, 1994 accuses Greve of being "paranoid." According to Greve, Stett's conduct placed intolerable stress on their therapeutic relationship, and therapy could not occur in that context. When Greve terminated therapy in June, 1995, she described their relationship as having become "more of an argument."
On November 23, 1994, Stett telephoned Greve at her New Orleans office 381 times. In response, Greve sent Stett a termination letter dated November 26, 1994, by certified mail. Greve terminated therapy because Stett had "adamantly refused to follow [Greve's] therapeutic advice, direction or treat
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