Opinion ID: 1839071
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: catholic charities' violation of its duty to the fosters was a proximate cause of the injuries to geoffrey

Text: This assignment has been discussed in the preceding discussion as to who had the duty to conduct the PKU test. This aside, however, the Fosters insist Catholic Charities' failure to properly complete the Child's Medical Information form and/or thoroughly investigate Geoffrey's health combined with the doctors' negligence proximately caused his damages. As stated in Simmons v. Amerada Hess Corp., 619 F.2d 440 (5th Cir.1980), Mississippi negligence law provides: An act which merely furnishes the condition or occasion upon which injuries are received, but which does not put in motion the agency by or through which the injuries are inflicted, does not constitute the proximate cause of the harm. Mississippi City Lines, Inc., v. Bullock, 194 Miss. 630, 13 So.2d 34, 36 (1943). Id. at 441. In a recent opinion, this Court provided this explanation of the rule of intervening cause: Although one may be negligent, yet if another, acting independently and voluntarily, put in motion another and intervening cause which efficiently thence leads unbroken in sequence to the injury, the later is the proximate cause and the original negligence is relegated to the position of a remote and, therefore, a non-actionable cause. Negligence, which merely furnishes the condition or occasion upon which injuries are received, but does not put in motion the agency by or through which the injuries are inflicted, is not the proximate cause thereof. 13 So.2d at 36. Glorioso v. YMCA of Jackson, 556 So.2d 293, 296 (Miss. 1989) (quoting Mississippi City Lines, supra ). Even if Catholic Charities were negligent in completing the form, it does not necessarily follow that its negligence resulted in Geoffrey's injuries. If this were the case, then Catholic Charities would have to be liable for the other blank spaces on the Medical Information Form. It was not Catholic Charities' duty to conduct any test; it did not have the capacity to do so. It is unreasonable that Catholic Charities could foresee that the entire medical staff in the Pediatrics Department would over-look such an important test during Geoffrey's six-day stay at the hospital. Moreover, it is even less likely that Dr. Nichols also would allow this empty blank to go unnoticed and uninvestigated. Consequently, it is clear that the hospital's medical staff and treating physicians' negligence superceded anything that Catholic Charities did or failed to do. Therefore, we turn to Foster's final assignment.