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McAllen Medical Center8/30/2001
As amended January 18, 2002.
MCALLEN MEDICAL CENTER, INC., PETITIONER
v.
RAMIRO CORTEZ, JR., ET AL., RESPONDENTS
The opinion of the court was delivered by: Justice O'Neill
On Petition for Review from the Court of Appeals for the Thirteenth District of Texas
Argued on March 21, 2001
Plaintiff brought this putative class action against a doctor and the hospital where he practiced, claiming that they had misrepresented the hospital's cardiac surgeons' qualifications. When the plaintiff settled with the doctor, the trial court certified a "settlement-only" plaintiff class, preliminarily approved the settlement, and scheduled a fairness hearing at which it would review and finalize both the certification and the settlement. See Tex. R. Civ. P. 42. The hospital attempted to appeal the trial court's order, but the court of appeals dismissed the appeal. 17 S.W.3d 305. It held that the hospital lacked standing to challenge the order and that the challenge to both certification and settlement was premature pending the fairness hearing's disposition. Id. at 309-10. We hold that the hospital's certification challenge is ripe and that it has standing to appeal the trial court's order. Accordingly, we reverse the court of appeals' judgment dismissing the hospital's appeal and remand the case to that court for further proceedings.
I. Background
Ramiro Cortez, Jr., filed this putative class action against McAllen Medical Center (MMC) and Dr. Francisco Bracamontes, a cardiac surgeon at MMC. Cortez alleges that Bracamontes and MMC misrepresented to cardiac-surgery patients that all MMC cardiac surgeons were board certified. He seeks economic damages from both MMC and Bracamontes, and damages for mental anguish and intentional infliction of emotional distress from Bracamontes. Two-and-one-half weeks after filing suit, Cortez reached a tentative settlement with Bracamontes, and they jointly moved for the trial court to certify a class for purposes of approving the settlement. The proposed class consisted of everyone who had cardiac surgery at MMC from December 1, 1993, to May 21, 1999. MMC received less than one day's notice of the certification hearing. MMC appeared at the hearing and asked the trial court to delay ruling on the motion until MMC could evaluate it. The trial court questioned MMC's standing to contest either the certification or the settlement, but gave MMC three days to file objections. MMC's objections contended that it had inadequate time to prepare for the hearing and that the proposed class met none of the criteria for class certification under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 42. The trial court implicitly overruled MMC's objections when it entered an order that (1) certified a class action "for purposes of settlement with Defendant Bracamontes only," (2) preliminarily approved the settlement, (3) scheduled a fairness hearing on the settlement, and (4) provided for class notice of the class action and the proposed settlement.
The class notice is directed not just to Bracamontes's patients, but to all patients who had cardiac surgery at MMC. The notice also describes class claims against both Bracamontes and MMC. The order recites that it will not prejudice any other defendant's right to contest class certification with respect to claims against it, and provides that the court will rescind the certification if it does not approve the settlement after the fairness hearing. MMC filed an interlocutory appeal, and the parties agreed to postpone the fairness hearing pending the court of appeals' decision. The fairness hearing has not yet occurred
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