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Diversicare General Partner10/14/2005
Argued September 24, 2003
JUSTICE WAINWRIGHT delivered the opinion of the Court, in which JUSTICE HECHT, JUSTICE MEDINA, JUSTICE JOHNSON, and JUSTICE WILLETT joined, and in which CHIEF JUSTICE JEFFERSON joined as to Part III(B)(3).
CHIEF JUSTICE JEFFERSON filed an opinion concurring in part, dissenting in part, and concurring in the judgment.
JUSTICE O'NEILL filed a dissenting opinion, in which JUSTICE BRISTER and JUSTICE GREEN joined.
We address for the first time whether the Medical Liability Insurance Improvement Act (MLIIA or the Act) governs a patient's claims that a nursing home's negligence in failing to provide adequate supervision and nursing services proximately caused her injuries from a sexual assault by another patient. We conclude that the nursing home resident's claims in this case are causes of action for departures from accepted standards of professional health care and safety. Therefore, the causes of action constitute health care liability claims under the MLIIA and are governed by the two-year statute of limitations prescribed by the statute.
I. Factual and Procedural Background
From August 1, 1994 to January 17, 1999, Maria Rubio was a resident of Goliad Manor nursing home. She suffered from Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type, rendering her mentally incapacitated for the duration of her stay at Goliad.
On July 14, 1999, Rubio's daughter, Mary Holcomb, as next friend, brought suit on Rubio's behalf against Diversicare General Partner, Inc., Diversicare Leasing Corporation, Advocat, Inc., and Texas Diversicare Limited Partnership doing business as Goliad Manor (collectively Diversicare) for injuries Rubio sustained in two separate falls while a resident at the facility. She alleged that Diversicare and its staff were negligent in failing to provide adequate supervision and nursing services to meet her fundamental needs; failing to budget for, hire, and train a sufficient number of qualified direct health care staff; failing to develop and implement adequate policies and procedures for safety, training, and staffing at its nursing homes; and for violations of section 22.04 of the Texas Penal Code entitled "Injury to Child, Elderly, or Disabled Individual." Rubio also brought a claim for breach of contract asserting that, as a Medicaid recipient, she was a third-party beneficiary to a contract between Diversicare and the Texas Department of Human Services under the Texas Medical Assistance Program.
On September 26, 2000, Rubio amended her petition to include damages arising from the alleged failure of Diversicare and its staff to adequately supervise and monitor Rubio to protect her from sexual abuse and assault by another resident in violation of sections 22.011 and 22.021 of the Texas Penal Code. She alleges multiple incidents of sexual assault occurring between October 1994 and April 1995. The summary judgment evidence identifies one incident that took place on April 25, 1995. A nurse entered Rubio's room and discovered a male resident straddling Rubio on the bed. Both Rubio's daughter and her physician were informed of the incident shortly after it occurred. Rubio remained a resident at Goliad Manor for another three and one-half years.
Rubio also added in her amended petition a claim for breach of an implied covenant to provide reasonably safe premises in which Rubio was a third-party beneficiary of the contract between Diversicare and the Texas Department of Human Services. Rubio further claimed fraudulent inducement, alleging that the facility represented that it would provide for her safety.
Diversicare moved for summary judgment on all of Rubio's cl
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