Huggins v. Longs Drug Stores California Inc.11/18/1993
SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA
No. S030711
1993.CA.40967 ; 862 P.2d 148; 6 Cal. 4th 124; 24 Cal. Rptr. 2d 587
Decided: November 18, 1993.
BARBIE HUGGINS ET AL., PLAINTIFFS AND APPELLANTS,
v.
LONGS DRUG STORES CALIFORNIA, INC., DEFENDANT AND RESPONDENT.
Superior Court of Stanislaus County, No. 255759, Hugh Rose III, Judge.
John J. Machado and Patricia Melugin Cousins for Plaintiffs and Appellants.
Dummit, Faber & Brown, Gregory P. Matzen, Donahue & Callaham and Stephen J. Mackey for Defendant and Respondent.
Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges, Curtis A. Cole, Steven J. Bernheim, Dicaro, Highman, D'Antony, Dillard, Fuller & Gregor, Kimberly Brown and Brian S. Letofsky as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Respondent.
Opinion by Baxter, J., with Lucas, C. J., Panelli, Arabian and George, JJ., Concurring. Separate Dissenting opinion by Mosk, J., with Kennard, J., Concurring. Separate Dissenting opinion by Kennard, J., with Mosk, J., Concurring.
Baxter
In filling a prescription for plaintiffs' two-month-old son, defendant pharmacy wrote directions for five times the dosage ordered by the doctor. Plaintiffs seek to hold the pharmacy liable for their emotional distress from having unwittingly injured their son by administration of the overdose. As is typical in suits for negligent infliction of emotional distress involving family relationships and medical treatment (see Burgess v. Superior Court (1992) 2 Cal. 4th 1064, 1071 [9 Cal. Rptr. 2d 615, 831 P.2d 1197] [hereafter Burgess ]), plaintiffs initially urged both a "bystander" theory and a "direct victim" theory.
The Court of Appeal rejected "bystander" recovery, but held that plaintiffs could state a claim as "direct victims" based on a limited duty of care owed by the pharmacist to persons other than the patient for whom the prescription is filled. That duty arises, according to the Court of Appeal, when the pharmacist knows or should know that the patient is an infant or other person incapable of taking the medication without assistance, and that the medication is to be administered, or its administration supervised, by a parent or other closely related caregiver. The supposed duty is violated if the pharmacist's negligence in filling the prescription, coupled with the parent's or caregiver's administration of the medication pursuant to the pharmacist's instructions, results in serious injury to the patient, and the parent or caregiver suffers emotional distress on learning that his or her own act
directly caused the patient's injury. The parent or caregiver is thereby deemed entitled to damages as a "direct victim" of the pharmacist's negligence.
We disagree, and reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Plaintiffs Barbie Huggins and Robert Huggins (plaintiffs) filed a complaint against Longs Drug Stores California, Inc. (defendant) and its agents (named as Doe defendants) containing the following allegations in all four of its causes of action: Plaintiffs are the parents of Kodee Huggins (Kodee), born August 14, 1989. On October 9, 1989, plaintiffs asked defendant's pharmacist to fill a prescription for a medication, Ceclor, to be given to Kodee in stated amounts. In filling the prescription, the pharmacist misstate
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