Opinion ID: 2100144
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Third Amended Complaint

Text: As mentioned earlier, the complaint contains 20 counts sounding in wrongful death or survival against 10 health-care providers, including physicians, psychologists, social workers and their employers. Except for times, places, and defendants, the allegations against all of the defendants are essentially the same and are as follows: that Richard was lawfully married to Teresa; that he had paranoid delusions that his wife was committing adultery and that she was trying to poison him; that he had thoughts of killing his wife and that he threatened to kill her; that Richard retained the services of defendants for psychiatric care, for his physical, psychological and emotional condition, or for physical, psychiatric and emotional care, and that defendants knew or should have known of Richard's paranoid delusions and his thoughts and threats of killing his wife; that it was reasonably foreseeable to defendants that Richard would injure and/or kill his wife and that defendants knew and/or should have known that Richard posed a specific threat of harm to his wife; that defendants undertook, either gratuitously or for consideration, to render services to Richard which defendants recognized or should have recognized as necessary for the protection of Teresa and that Teresa relied upon defendants' undertaking, assuming that they would appropriately evaluate, treat and supervise Richard, warn Teresa, and all others to whom Richard posed a threat of harm, warn the appropriate authorities of the threat posed by Richard, and hospitalize and/or otherwise control him; that defendants' duties included the duty of ordinary care, the duty of professional care, the duty to protect Teresa, the duty to supervise the treatment and condition of Richard, and the duty to control Richard; that defendants provided substandard care to Richard by failing to properly diagnose, treat, and monitor Richard's physical, psycho logical and emotional condition, by failing to warn Teresa and the police and by failing to hospitalize and/or otherwise control Richard. There is no allegation in the third amended complaint that Teresa was a patient of any of the defendants except for a conclusory allegation that James R. Goggin, M.D., was a family practice physician and that Teresa was his patient. This allegation is out of context with the other allegations of the two counts against Dr. Goggin, the other counts of the complaint and the arguments of the parties pertaining to a duty of care to a nonpatient third party.