Source: http://www.paulmorantz.com/cult/rains-v-center-for-feeling-therapy/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 11:01:39+00:00

Document:
JEAN RAINS et al., Petitioners, v. THE SUPERIOR COURT OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Respondent; CENTER FOR FEELING THERAPY PSYCHOLOGICAL CORPORATION et al., Real Parties in Interest.
Stephen L. Cooper and Paul Morantz for Petitioners.
Fonda & Garrard, Stanley D. Saltzman, Dori E. Miles, Vletas & Greer, Barash & Hill, Edwin B. Warren, John G. Kerr, Louis M. Marlin, Roper & Folino and Michael J. Irwin for Real Parties in Interest.
Whether a cause of action for battery was well pleaded in plaintiffs’ second amended complaint and, if not, whether it is possible to plead such a cause under applicable law.
Whether respondent’s imposition of monetary sanctions under Code of Civil Procedure section 128.5, subdivision (a), was an abuse of discretion.
[1a] Whether a viable cause for battery has been or might be pleaded turns upon whether plaintiffs’ consent to use of physical violence by defendants as a therapeutic treatment may be vitiated by allegations that defendant psychiatrists actually did not administer such violence for any therapeutic purposes but for the improper ulterior purpose of subjugating plaintiffs and controlling their behavior to defendants’ personal advantage.
The facts are that petitioners (hereinafter plaintiffs) sued real parties (hereinafter defendants), psychiatrists and the corporations established by them as alter egos, by a second amended complaint alleging counts for fraud, breach of contract, false imprisonment, battery, intentional infliction of distress, medical malpractice, and negligence. Plaintiffs allege, in substance, that defendants induced plaintiffs to enter into a residential group psychiatric treatment program upon certain false representations as to the therapeutic value and limited term of the program. In fact, defendants used the program as a pretext to employ psychological coercion, humiliation, and physical violence to subjugate plaintiffs, to coerce plaintiffs to remain in the residential program, to serve defendants for no compensation, to give defendants donations, to recruit new patients, and to believe their well-being depended upon remaining in the program and loyally serving defendants to the exclusion of the outside world.
The count alleges that “any consent to such touchings occurred as a result of the fraudulent representations described in Paragraphs 8 and 14 of the First Cause of Action.” However, the battery count expressly incorporates by reference only paragraphs 1 through 13 of the first cause of action.
The specific misrepresentations described in paragraph 8 of the first cause of action (fraud) are that, at or about the time the respective plaintiffs enrolled in defendants’ program, defendants represented to them orally and in writing that a patient would be cured and transformed into a successful person within a period of six months to one year.
The battery count further alleges that “[a]ssaults and batteries were also used to control the behavior of plaintiffs under the guise of being ‘proper therapy’.” Plaintiffs seek punitive damages for the alleged batteries.
Plaintiffs filed a motion for a “new trial,” and another motion for reconsideration and for leave to file a proposed third amended complaint which contained a battery count alleging additional facts. Respondent denied the motion for new trial and the motion for reconsideration, but allowed the filing of the third amended complaint upon striking the battery count therefrom. Respondent imposed monetary sanctions against plaintiffs and their counsel, jointly, in the amount of $1,000 pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure section 128.5, subdivision (a), for bringing a motion for reconsideration without alleging new and different state of facts as required by Code of Civil Procedure section 1008, and for bringing a wholly inappropriate motion for new trial.
[1b] For purposes of the present proceeding, the critical question is whether plaintiffs allege or could allege facts sufficient to show that there was an absence of informed consent by plaintiffs to the particular offensive nature of the contact alleged. That is, if the consent manifested by plaintiffs’ participation in defendants’ program after advisement that violent therapeutic contact would occur may not be vitiated under applicable law by the alleged misrepresentation as to therapeutic purpose, then plaintiffs not only have not stated a prima facie cause in battery but may not, as a matter of law, plead such a cause.
It appears that no reported California case has addressed the question under consideration. fn. 2 However, the out-of-state cases cited in Prosser on Torts (op. cit., supra, at p. 105, fn. 75) and the authorities cited in Fleming on Torts (op. cit., supra, at p. 78, fns. 28 and 31) support the correctness of the determination that a physician’s intentional misrepresentation that an otherwise offensive touching is medically necessary vitiates the consent given in ignorance of the true nontherapeutic character of the touching.
Defendants correctly point out that none of the cases cited in Prosser on Torts, supra, at page 105, footnote 75, and Fleming on Torts, supra, at page 78, footnote 28, involve a licensed physician who obtains personal advantage by falsely representing that otherwise offensive contact is medically necessary. However, these cases are significant for their analyses of analogous fact situations. One of these cases, Bartell v. State (1900) 106 Wis. 342 [82 N.W. 142], holds that consent so obtained by an unlicensed massage healer is vitiated by the fact of his misrepresentation of therapeutic necessity rather than by the fact he was not a licensed physician. The analysis of this case, as well as that of the remaining cases which find vitiation of consent due to the misrepresentation of the tortfeasor’s professional capacity or purpose, supports the conclusion that deceit as to the therapeutic purpose of contact vitiates consent for the same reason as does deceit as to the lack of professional capacity of the person effecting the purported therapeutic contact.
Bartell v. State, supra, 82 N.W. 142, involved a battery defendant who “claimed to be a magnetic healer,” not a licensed physician. He practiced his profession by massage treatments, which method was familiar to licensed physicians of that time. In so treating an 18-year-old female, with her permission and that of her father, defendant required her to remove all her clothing as a necessity of the treatment while alone in a room with him. He then massaged her body while it was wholly exposed to his view. Finally, he had her sit on his lap and “took some indecent liberties with her.” Defendant’s conviction of battery was affirmed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court which held the determinative question to be whether, in the manner defendant proceeded to treat his patient, the defendant attempted in good faith to cure the patient’s disorder and caused her to expose her body for purpose of such treatment or instead caused the patient to “needlessly … submit her body to him for [his personal] gratification” by intentionally misrepresenting to her that such submission was “a necessary incident of [150 Cal.App.3d 941] the treatment for curative purposes.” (At p. 143.) Bartell held on the basis of expert testimony that total disrobement was not necessary to therapy, and that a battery had occurred.
No persuasive reason is advanced by defendants, nor is any apparent to this court, why physicians, to the exclusion of all other persons, should enjoy total immunity from liability where they intentionally deceive another into submitting to otherwise offensive touching to achieve a nontherapeutic purpose known only to the physician. If a physician, for the sole secret purpose of generating a fee, intentionally misrepresented to a patient that an unneeded operation was necessary, it is beyond question that the consent so obtained would be legally ineffective.
This court is persuaded by the authorities discussed herein that the therapeutic versus nontherapeutic purpose of touching by a psychiatrist goes to the “essential character of the act itself” and thus vitiates consent obtained by fraud as to that character.
This conclusion does not unfairly subject physicians to liability for battery, as is suggested by defendants. For purposes of present review, the sole question is whether the plaintiffs can possibly allege facts stating a cause for battery against their psychiatrists. To prevail on such a theory plaintiffs must prove at trial that defendants’ true purpose in employing violent physical contact upon plaintiffs was to achieve the secret personal purposes alleged rather than the announced purpose of curing the mental disorders of the plaintiffs.
The emphasis in Cobbs upon the “intentional deviation from the consent given” is wholly consistent with the analysis in the present case. Cobbs did not involve a situation where the physician was found to have intentionally performed treatment for a nontherapeutic purpose that served his personal advantage to the injury of the patient. There was no intent to cause injury to the patient. The Cobbs situation is qualitatively distinct from that where [150 Cal.App.3d 942] a physician intends to perform treatment for a nontherapeutic purpose when consent was given only for a therapeutic purpose. The latter case constitutes an intentional deviation from the consent given and is even more objectionable than a physician’s good faith effort to effect a cure by exceeding the precise treatment to which consent was given.
Cobbs v. Grant, supra, 8 Cal.3d 229 , found certain policy considerations to require protection of physicians in the context of an omission to advise of all known potential complications of a particular treatment. The first is the lesser burden of proof required in a battery count as contrasted with a medical malpractice count where the physician’s omission must be proven not to conform to prevailing medical standards of full disclosure. Second, a physician found liable for battery for failure to give full disclosure of potential complications would be subject to punitive damages which his or her malpractice insurance might not cover. (At p. 240.) However, neither of these considerations has application in the context of an intentional deception as to the essential therapeutic nature of a treatment. Instead of enjoying a lesser burden of proof as to negligent omission, such a patient must prove intentional deceit as to the represented therapeutic purpose. Logically, this entails a showing of the known absence of therapeutic value and wrongful intent. If wrongful intent exists, the rationale of limiting liability to conform to negligent omission is inapplicable.
Petitioners contend that respondent’s imposition of monetary sanctions against them was an abuse of discretion because ” … petitioners’ counsel, themselves, sought advise [sic] from an Appellate lawyer for suggestions on what procedures to take following the Court sustaining the demurrer without leave to amend. The filing of the Motion to Reconsider resulted from petitioners [sic] counsels’ own obtaining of legal advise [sic] from an Appellate lawyer.” The petition also argues that the motion for reconsideration was supported by “additional … new and different” facts stated in the proposed third amended complaint and that the seeking of reconsideration on the basis of such new fact allegations was intended to expedite respondent’s workload by giving respondent the option to either allow the third amended complaint in its entirety (including a valid cause for battery) or allowing the complaint after striking the battery count.
[3a] Apparently no reported California case has determined whether a motion for reconsideration of the sustaining of a demurrer without leave to amend may be based upon an alleged different state of facts set forth in a proposed new complaint.
Code of Civil Procedure section 1003 provides, in part, “An application for an order is a motion.” A demurrer is, for other purposes, one of the allowable pleadings (Code Civ. Proc., § 422.10) and is one of the means of objecting to a complaint or cross-complaint (Code Civ. Proc., § 430.10). We hold that for purposes of Code of Civil Procedure section 1008, subdivision (a), a demurrer is also “an application for an order” and will support an application to reconsider the matter when supported by a proposed pleading containing new allegations not previously included by the pleader.
Here, the affidavit submitted by petitioners’ counsel in support of the motion for reconsideration contained hearsay allegations as to various instances of nontherapeutic violence, which affidavit was appropriately objected to by defendants. Only the new allegations in the battery count of the proposed third amended complaint could possibly satisfy the requirement of section 1008. In their opposition to the motion for reconsideration, defendants argued the requisite showing must consist of new facts previously unknown to the moving party. But no authority is cited for this proposition.
It appears that only two reported cases have construed the “different state of facts” requirement of subdivision (a) of section 1008 and the “new facts” requirement of subdivision (b) of that statute. Both cases suggest a construction conflicting with defendants’ present contention that plaintiffs’ motion for reconsideration was improper, absent a showing of newly discovered facts.
Blue Mountain Development Co. v. Carville (1982) 132 Cal.App.3d 1005 , 1012-1014 [183 Cal.Rptr. 594], reaches the same conclusion as to the distinct requirements of subdivisions (a) and (b) of section 1008 as to interim orders.
Conceding that plaintiffs’ motion for reconsideration need not be based upon newly discovered facts, the question remains whether the “alleged different state of facts” required under subdivision (a) may be properly alleged in an unverified proposed amended complaint.  While evidentiary facts would ordinarily have to be verified in some manner to be cognizable in support of a motion, the state of facts determinative on a demurrer to a complaint need not be. The allegations of a complaint subject to challenge on demurrer are presumed to be true whether or not the complaint is verified. (3 Witkin, Cal. Procedure (2d ed. 1971) Pleading, § 800, p. 2413.) [3b] Accordingly, it is sufficient that the plaintiffs alleged different facts in their proposed third amended complaint upon which respondent could determine as a matter of law whether a cause is pleaded.
 In view of these considerations, it must be concluded that respondent abused its discretion in awarding $1,000 in attorneys’ fees as a sanction. Plaintiffs sought reconsideration of the original order sustaining the demurrer in a manner not abusive of section 1008, subdivision (a) of the Code of Civil Procedure. Presentation of the different fact allegations plaintiffs believed cured the defect in their second amended complaint was directed toward persuading respondent that a valid cause could be pleaded with these new facts. It is not apparent that plaintiffs sought such reconsideration in bad faith or that the contentions there advanced were believed by them to be frivolous. In fact, their contentions were meritorious.
 However, plaintiffs’ motion for new trial was clearly frivolous and inappropriate in the context of an order sustaining a demurrer to a portion [150 Cal.App.3d 945] of a complaint without leave to amend. Accordingly, respondent was justified in imposing monetary sanctions against plaintiffs and their counsel based upon the expense occasioned defendants in opposing that inappropriate motion. This sanction should be a small portion of the $1,000 originally imposed, as defendants’ meritorious opposition to the motion for new trial required little effort or research. It is evident that the great majority of defendants’ expenses were incurred in opposition to the motion for reconsideration. Thus, respondent should reconsider the amount of the monetary sanctions imposed.
Let a peremptory writ of mandate issue directing respondent to vacate its orders of April 25, 1983, and June 16, 1983, sustaining defendants’ demurrer without leave to amend and denying plaintiffs’ motion for reconsideration with imposition of sanctions, respectively, and to make a new and different order accepting plaintiffs’ third amended complaint as including a cognizable cause of action for battery and imposing monetary sanctions against plaintiffs and their counsel based only upon defendants’ expense in opposing the inappropriate motion for new trial.
Kingsley, J., and Amerian, J., concurred.
­ FN 1. In their petition for mandate, plaintiffs have abandoned this theory. Their two present principal contentions are that the trial court abused its discretion by rejecting the theory that intentional misrepresentation as to therapeutic purpose vitiates consent and by imposing monetary sanctions.

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