Opinion ID: 853547
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Application of Mayhue to a Wrongful Death Suit

Text: In Mayhue v. Sparkman, 653 N.E.2d 1384, 1388-89 (1995), this Court held that a plaintiff is not precluded from bringing a medical malpractice claim against a negligent doctor merely because the plaintiff is unable to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the doctor's conduct was the proximate cause of the resulting injury. We adopted Section 323 of the Restatement of Torts, which reads: One who undertakes, gratuitously or for consideration, to render services to another which he should recognize as necessary for the protection of the other's person or things, is subject to liability to the other for physical harm resulting from his failure to exercise reasonable care to perform his undertaking, if: (a) his failure to exercise such care increases the risk of such harm, or; (b) the harm is suffered because of the other's reliance upon the undertaking. This doctrine permits recovery from a defendant whose negligence significantly increases the probability of the ultimate harm, even if the likelihood of incurring that injury was greater than fifty percent in the absence of the defendant's negligence. Here, as in Mayhue, all experts agreed that Cummings would probably not have survived even if he had been properly diagnosed and treated in December of 1991. However, Cummings' expert testified that Cummings would have had a statistically significant chance, perhaps twenty-five to thirty percent, of surviving his esophageal cancer if it had been diagnosed at Cummings' first visit to Kohne. The defendants maintain that the relaxed causation standard of Mayhue is inapplicable in a wrongful death case because the wrongful death statute, by its terms, demands that the defendant's actions be the proximate cause of the death of the victim. The relevant provision reads: When the death of one is caused by the wrongful act or omission of another, the personal representative of the former may maintain an action therefor against the latter, if the former might have maintained an action had he or she ... lived, against the latter for an injury for the same act or omission. Ind.Code § 34-23-1-1 (1998). [1] The Court of Appeals held that the causation standard of Mayhue applied in the context of the wrongful death action, concluding that: [T]he intent of the wrongful death statute was to allow an action to be brought by the decedent's personal representative against a defendant who may be held legally liable for the death, regardless of the mechanism of liability. Cahoon, 715 N.E.2d at 7. We agree with the Court of Appeals that the statute is consistent with the Mayhue standard of causation. The wrongful death statute requires causation, but it does not spell out what is meant by that term and does not specify that a plaintiff must establish proximate causation. The trial court instructed the jury on the causation standard of Mayhue as follows: In this case you must first determine if the Defendant's negligence increased the risk of harm to Ted Cummings, and whether the increased risk was a substantial factor in his death on August 15, 1993. This is an accurate recitation of the causation standard of Mayhue. Mayhue identified the reasons to permit recovery in a loss of consortium case for increased risk of the ultimate injuryin that case death. Principally, to deny recovery is to encourage disregard for the proper care of more seriously ill patients. Those with serious problems but also a significant chance of recovery are entitled to the same level of care as less threatened patients, and their caregivers should be held to the same standard. Accordingly, this instruction was properly given. Finally, the defendants note that Mayhue presented a loss of consortium claim and urge this Court to limit Mayhue to its facts. Although it is true that Mayhue involved a loss of consortium claim, the policy underlying Mayhue is equally compelling here. We see no basis to allow a relaxed standard of causation in the loss of consortium context, but not the wrongful death context. The wrongful death statute is intended to provide economic support to survivors, and a loss of consortium claim compensates the plaintiff for loss of companionship of the decedent. The issue addressed in Mayhue is the level of causation required, not the type of claim brought. This is the same because the event giving rise to each injurythe deathis the same. Consistent with other jurisdictions, we hold that Section 323 applies in the wrongful death context. [2] See, e.g., McKellips v. Saint Francis Hosp., Inc., 741 P.2d 467, 469-70 (Okla.1987); Perez v. Las Vegas Med. Ctr., 107 Nev. 1, 805 P.2d 589, 591 (1991) (following McKellips ).