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Perkins v. Greenberg9/26/1991
Plaintiff, Carolyn L. Perkins, appeals the summary judgment dismissing her personal injury claim against defendant, David C. Greenberg, a physician. Such judgment was entered because the trial court concluded that defendant owed to plaintiff no duty of due care with reference to those acts that allegedly caused injury to plaintiff. We reverse.
In 1985, plaintiff was a passenger in a shuttle bus at Stapleton International Airport when the bus struck a stop sign. She alleged that, as a result of this collision, she suffered injuries to her neck and shoulder, and she brought suit against the owner and operator of the shuttle bus to recover for those injuries.
In that action, the defendants there requested, pursuant to C.R.C.P. 35, that plaintiff undergo a medical examination by a physician of their choice. Accordingly, she was referred to defendant to perform that examination. It is undisputed that defendant was not retained to provide any medical care or treatment to plaintiff, and plaintiff did not pay defendant for any services that he rendered.
During plaintiff's examination, she gave a case history to defendant and advised him that she had undergone spinal surgeries on three separate occasions in the past. She informed him that she was then undergoing rehabilitative therapy for her back condition.
Following his personal examination of plaintiff, defendant concluded that, in order to allow him thoroughly to evaluate her physical condition, plaintiff should undergo an additional "functional capacity examination" at another facility. This examination, which was administered by personnel from that other facility, involved testing plaintiff's strength and range of motion through a series of lifting exercises.
Plaintiff performed the tests as required. However, she claims that, as a result of the lifting exercises involved in these tests, she suffered a serious and debilitating injury to her lower back.
In this action, she asserts that defendant, knowing of the weakened condition of her back and of the nature of the "functional capacity examination" that he directed her to perform, was negligent in directing that she undergo such an examination. Hence, she seeks to recover for the personal injuries allegedly occurring as a result of her performance of this examination.
The trial court concluded that, because there existed no physician-patient relationship between defendant and plaintiff, defendant owed plaintiff no duty of due care with reference to the test administered. As a result, it ruled that defendant could not be liable for any injuries suffered by plaintiff as a result of that examination.
Plaintiff argues that the trial court erred in determining that defendant owed her no duty of due care in these circumstances. We agree.
To establish a prima facie claim for negligence, a plaintiff must show the existence of a legal duty on the part of the defendant, a breach of that duty, and injury to plaintiff as a result of that breach. Perreira v. State, 768 P.2d 1198 (Colo. 1989). A negligence claim, therefore, cannot be asserted unless it can be demonstrated that the defendant owed a duty of due care to plaintiff under the circumstances from which plaintiff's injury occurred. University of Denver v. Whitlock, 744 P.2d 54 (Colo. 1987); Shaw v. General Motors Corp., 727 P.2d 387 (Colo. App. 1986).
Here, the trial court concluded that, absent the existence of a physician-patient relationship, a physician owes no such duty to a person whom the physician has been engaged only to examine. While we agree th
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