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Foster v. Traul7/21/2005
2005 Opinion No. 86
District court order for summary judgment, affirmed in part and vacated in part.
Frank Lane Foster sued Pocatello Regional Medical Center (PRMC) and medical service providers, alleging medical negligence and lack of informed consent. Foster appeals from a district court's grant of summary judgment on both counts in favor of the Defendants. We affirm in part and vacate in part, remanding for further proceedings.
I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Immediately after undergoing back surgery at PRMC in December of 1998, Foster discovered he had lost all vision in his right eye, and suffered from reduced vision in his left eye. His condition was later diagnosed as posterior ischemic optic neuropathy. Foster filed a petition for a prelitigation screening panel. Following its investigation the panel issued a written report, and several months later Foster brought the present action in Bannock County District Court.
The defendants named in Foster's complaint were Dr. John B. Traul, an anesthesiologist; Anesthesia Associates of Pocatello, P.A., (Anesthesia Associates) to which Dr. Traul was affiliated; John Tatham, a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist; and PRMC. Tatham and Dr. Traul had provided anesthesia services during Foster's back surgery.
Tatham and Anesthesia Associates filed a motion to dismiss, asserting the statute of limitations had run on Foster's claims against them. After a hearing the district court granted Tatham's motion to dismiss, but ruled that Anesthesia Associates remained potentially liable as Dr. Traul's employer. No appeal was taken from that order.
Dr. Traul and PRMC moved for summary judgment. In addition to deposition testimony, the Defendants' motion was supported by affidavits from Dr. Traul and Cindy Richardson, R.N. In opposition to the motion Foster submitted an affidavit from Dr. John Patton, an anesthesiologist, seeking to establish that the Defendants negligently breached the applicable standard of care.
The Defendants filed a motion to strike and an objection to the Patton affidavit, asserting among other grounds that Dr. Patton had failed to demonstrate actual knowledge of the standard of care applicable to anesthesiology as practiced in Pocatello, Idaho, that Dr. Patton had not shown an adequate foundation to testify concerning neurosurgery or ophthalmology, and that Dr. Patton improperly relied upon the inadmissible report of the prelitigation screening panel.
The district court struck the Patton affidavit on the grounds that Dr. Patton had relied in part on the inadmissible prelitigation screening panel report. The court also found that Dr. Patton failed to establish the necessary foundation to testify as to matters of causation or the standard of care as it related to the PRMC nursing staff. Without the affidavit Foster had presented no expert testimony alleging a breach of the applicable standard of care. On that basis the district court granted the motion for summary judgment and extinguished Foster's claims against all parties. Dr. Patton submitted a second affidavit, and Foster moved for reconsideration of the decision to strike the Patton affidavits and to grant summary judgment. After a further hearing the motion for reconsideration was denied.
Foster filed a timely appeal that is now before this Court.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
In reviewing a ruling on a summary judgment motion, this Court employs the same standard as that used by the district court. Sprinkler Irrigation Co. v. John Deere Ins., 139 Idaho 691, 695, 85 P.3d 667, 671 (2004). Summary judgment is appropriate "if the pleadings,
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