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Hill v. McCartney12/28/1998
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Robert A. Hutchison, Judge.
Carolyn Hill appeals the district court order denying her motion to extend time to designate expert witnesses and granting defendants' motions for summary judgment. AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART, AND REMANDED.
A patient claims her doctor's statement he did something "freaky" is enough of an admission to stand as her expert testimony for trial. Carolyn Hill appeals the trial court's denial of her application for extension of time to designate experts and the court's grant of summary judgment to defendants in her medical malpractice claim against defendant doctors John McCartney and Neil Dunbar. Because we find Hill failed to establish good cause for not timely designating an expert, we affirm the trial court's denial of her application. Because a jury could infer from McCartney's alleged extra-judicial admissions that he did breach his standard of care, Hill was not required to have expert testimony to present her claim against McCartney to a jury. We reverse the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of McCartney. We affirm in regard to Dunbar.
I. Background Facts & Proceedings.
Carolyn Hill sought the dental care of McCartney to remove a nickel bridge from her mouth and extract two teeth. During the procedure, the drill McCartney was using allegedly hit Hill's jaw or gum. Hill's face and eye immediately swelled. According to Hill, McCartney became distraught, cried, and stated: "Oh, don't worry about it. I will take care of you. I have malpractice insurance . . . . I did something freaky to you. I fucked you up." McCartney rushed Hill to a nearby oral surgeon, Dr. Dunbar, who finished the work on her tooth. Hill did not return to either doctor for follow-up care.
Hill filed a pro se medical malpractice petition against the defendants. Trial was scheduled for September 29, 1997. Hill subpoenaed several witnesses to testify as experts, but all witnesses got their subpoenas quashed. She never formally designated expert witnesses. On August 22, 1997, an attorney representing Hill filed an appearance and a motion for extension of time to designate expert witnesses. The defendants filed motions for summary judgment. The court denied the motion for extension of time for lack of good cause and granted summary judgment for the defendants, finding expert testimony was required to prove the applicable standard of care. Hill appeals.
II. Standard of Review.
We review the trial court's denial of Hill's application to extend the expert witness deadline for abuse of discretion. Trial courts have broad discretion in ruling on whether to extend the time allowed for parties to designate expert witnesses under rule 688.11, and the exercise of that discretion will not be disturbed unless it was exercised on clearly untenable grounds or to an extent clearly unreasonable. Donovan v. State, 445 N.W.2d 763, 766 (Iowa 1989).
Our review of a grant or denial of summary judgment is at law. Iowa R. App. P. 4; Gabrilson v. Flynn, 554 N.W.2d 267, 270 (Iowa 1996). Summary judgment is only appropriate when no genuine issue of material fact exists and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Iowa R. Civ. P. 237(c); Phipps v. IASD Health Servs. Corp., 558 N.W.2d 198, 201 (Iowa 1997). To determine whether there is a genuine issue of material fact, the court must examine the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions on file, and affidavits. Iowa R. Civ. P. 237(c). The record here consists of the pleadings, affidavits, and exhibits. We review the record in the light most favorable to the party opposing summ
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